


Reality Pushes Us Towards and Away

by boleynhowards



Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: College AU, F/F, University AU, enemies to lovers sort of kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:27:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 64,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24975325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boleynhowards/pseuds/boleynhowards
Summary: Anne Boleyn and Catherine Parr are university roommates with approximately one thing in common; they absolutely despise one another.At least, that’s what they originally thought. Both of them also happen to be each other’s closest online friend, messaging constantly and eventually catching feelings. When one thing leads to another, the pair decide to finally meet in real life.So what do they do when they find out that the person they want nothing to do with is the same person they think about right before they go to sleep?
Relationships: Anne Boleyn/Catherine Parr, Anne of Cleves/Katherine Howard
Comments: 109
Kudos: 302





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> prefacing with a huge thank you to @theothercatherine (on both tumblr and AO3) for reading through every chapter of this that has been written so far and allowing me to ramble about it to her.
> 
> also to @thenameisnoone (on tumblr) for reading the first chapter of this when i originally got the idea and convincing me to continue with the story.
> 
> i hope you enjoy this fic. <3

“I miss you already.” Anne sighed haplessly down the phone, looking longingly at the clock.

“We only separated like, two minutes ago, Anne.” Her cousin, Kat, giggled from the other end and Anne could just picture her shaking her head even if the camera wasn’t on, “Plus, I’m literally in the same building as you. On the floor below.”

“I know!” Anne defended herself, smiling despite the fact she was getting teased, “Just, sometimes, I wish I could share a dorm with you instead.”

“I’m sure your roommate isn’t that bad.”

“Trust me, Kat, she is.”

In the background of the call, Anne could make out the sound of a door opening and a voice filling the room before Kat responded, “Anna just got back from class, I think I’ve gotta go now.”

“Surprising.” Anne sarcastically commented, “Enjoy, like, the fourth date night this week. Bearing in mind it’s Thursday today.”

“Anne!” Kat gasped on the other end in a feign of offence, “You’re just jealous that I’m close with my roommate and you’re not.”

“When I say I want a good roommate, I mean someone who I can get along with. Not someone to date.” Anne said with a playful role of the eyes at her cousin’s antics.

“Yeah, right.” Kat chuckled, “Anyway, I’ll talk to you later!”

“Have fun tonight. I’ll speak to you soon.” Anne responded, and, with that, she hung up the phone and discarded it to her side.

Now she was alone, she had time to kill. That was even more important considering her roommate was currently not in, meaning she could do just about whatever she wanted. Anne’s boundaries were limitless right now; she could cook without being scolded for making a mess, she could watch a video on her Instagram feed without receiving glares for the volume being too loud, or she could turn on the central speaker and recklessly dance around the dorm lounge without a care in the world.

Freedom was Anne’s for the time being, all until her roommate got home. Catherine Parr, or Cathy, as she liked to be called, was probably at class or at the library or maybe the coffee shop, probably doing something intellectual because she was an annoying smartass. At least, that’s what Anne thought.

Of all the students in her year that Anne could have been randomly assigned to share a dorm with, Cathy was the unluckiest choice. They just didn’t match, not in the slightest of ways. Whilst one of them loved activity and socialising, the other preferred calmness and order. Anne was loud and chaotic and Cathy just liked peace and quiet. It truly was the worst match up. Maybe the university spun the names through the system on Friday the 13th, or maybe this was just the universe coming back to bite Anne for not sending on that chainmail from five years ago. Either way, she was screwed.

That’s why she savoured every moment she was alone in the dorm without Cathy. Without a doubt, Anne knew that Cathy probably did the same. Not that she cared though. With the amount of times they clashed, every second spent away from one another was a second well spent.

But, of course, living together meant having to see each other at least once a day, so Anne wasn’t surprised that as soon as she finally got comfortable on the sofa and reached out for the TV remote, the door to the dorm swung open and in walked Cathy. Her expectance of Cathy’s arrival did nothing to mask her disappointment though, and as they caught each other's eyes there was a mutual disdain in the look they shared.

Neither of the students wanted to interact for longer than needed and so both averted their eye contact very quickly. Anne turned back to the TV and began to aimlessly flick through the channels whilst Cathy dropped the armful of books she was carrying onto one of the empty chairs. _Stupid Cathy and her stupid books_ , Anne thought.

There was a silence as Anne continued to look through the TV channels and, unsurprisingly, Cathy walked over to the kitchen area of their dorm room and began boiling the kettle with water to make a coffee. _Does she drink anything else? Hopefully all the caffeine gives her an overdose or something._

The peace (though was it peace if both Anne and Cathy were thinking unpleasant thoughts about each other?) did not last long. There never really was a long time without some sort of argument breaking out. This time it started when Cathy spoke up.

“It’s really cold in here.” She pointed out as she took the now boiled water and poured it into a mug.

“Go wear a warm jumper or something, then.” Anne advised without taking her eyes away from the screen, on which she had still not decided on a show. Right now, she really couldn’t be bothered with Cathy’s complaining.

“You could have turned the heating on while I was gone.”

“Well, I wasn’t cold.” Anne twisted around to face Cathy, her patience wearing thin extremely quickly, “And, like I said, you can just go put on a jumper or get under your blanket.”

“It’s called being considerate.” Cathy remarked, her eyebrows furrowed.

“Really?” Anne scoffed, “Because I thought it was called not wanting to do a favour for your shitty roommate.”

“Oh my God, Anne, why do you always have to pick fights?” Cathy’s hands tightened around the grip of the mug she was holding with frustration.

“You’re the one who started it!”

“Now you’re just being childish.”

“Fuck off, Catherine.”

Content mood completely destroyed, Anne threw the TV remote carelessly back onto the sofa and stormed up from the room, making sure to knock the books onto the floor as she marched past them. She slammed her bedroom door behind her as she walked in and fell back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling and thinking.

Thinking about how much she absolutely hated Catherine Parr. How annoying she was, with all that typing and writing and reading and the constant smell of coffee in their house that Anne detested. That wasn’t even to mention her equally annoying friends who she always saw her with around campus, especially that one who always sent her a glare as she passed by.

It wasn’t even like she didn’t try to be friends with Cathy. Why would she purposely sabotage her living conditions for the year? But no, Cathy just hated everyone who wasn’t on the same low bar as her, anyone who didn’t spend their whole life hunched over a journal with a pen in hand. Or maybe anyone called Anne Boleyn. What was the difference, at this point?

Anne heard some shuffling around in the lounge and outside the door as Cathy presumably finished making her drink and picked up the books that Anne had knocked over before finally going back into her own room. _Hopefully the coffee was magically poisoned or something_ , she thought before shaking the wish from her mind. As much as she wanted to, Anne couldn’t think like that. She was trying to calm down, not get even more worked up.

Minutes after that grim thought, she was finally pulled from the destructive cycle with the vibration of her phone next to her. Anne had completely forgotten that she had left it here after hanging up with Kat only a short while ago, but that didn’t matter now as she turned the screen on to check who had messaged her.

**_From: goldstar_ **

**_Hey, sorry for the late reply. I’ve been busy all day_ **

Finally! A relieved smile spread across Anne’s face as she pressed down to unlock her phone. The Tumblr user _goldstar_ had been her online mutual for a little while until they finally started interacting in the replies of a post. After they took it to direct messaging, the pair had begun chatting every single day and Anne had really grown to enjoy their conversations. The only bad thing was that, unfortunately, _goldstar_ and Cathy Parr shared a name. What a shame for poor _goldstar._

Well, _goldstar_ Cathy was far superior to university roommate Cathy, so Anne didn’t care if they shared a name. In fact, it was redemption for all the other poor Cathys in the world.

**_To: goldstar_ **

**_it’s okay, i haven’t been home that long :) i was hanging out with my cousin all day_ **

**_From: goldstar_ **

**_Lucky! I’ve been at classes_ **

**_To: goldstar_ **

**_well, i’ve got a full day tomorrow, so i’ll soon know your pain_ **

**_From: goldstar_ **

**_Speaking of knowing my pain, I need to talk about my roommate. Again_ **

**_To: goldstar_ **

**_what’d she do this time_ **

**_From: goldstar_ **

**_I can’t even be asked to get into it. She’s just so inconsiderate all the time_ **

**_To: goldstar_ **

**_what a bitch_ **

**_From: goldstar_ **

**_It’s not even the first time she’s acted up today either_ **

**_To: goldstar_ **

**_ugh what else did she do_ **

**_From: goldstar_ **

**_You know how I have trouble sleeping at night? Well she really doesn’t care about that at all. This morning she woke up like three hours after I finally got to sleep and didn’t even bother about being quiet or anything. I woke up because she was crashing around the apartment and wasn’t able to get to sleep again, so basically I’ve been to classes today running on three hours sleep_ **

**_To: goldstar_ **

**_UGHHH she’s such a bitch_ **

**_i literally hate her if i saw her irl i would punch her in the face_ **

**_From: goldstar_ **

**_Please do, I would love that_ **

**_But anyway, what about your roommate? Can’t be as bad as mine_ **

**_To: goldstar_ **

**_kind of the opposite problem but really annoying anyway. she’s always up later than me but doesn’t care that sOME OF US are trying to sleep at a normal time. i always hear her getting up in the middle of the night or typing on her laptop or something. i just want to fucking sleep_ **

**_From: goldstar_ **

**_Looks like my roommate has some competition for shittiest roommate award_ **

**_To: goldstar_ **

**_right? i think we should just leave our roommates and become each other’s roommates instead_ **

**_From: goldstar_ **

**_I WISH_ **

Anne smiled at the screen for a few seconds as she read over the message; it always helped her to let off steam with her online friend. Before she could type a message back though, the three typing bubbles appeared and she awaited another message from the good Cathy.

**_From: goldstar_ **

**_I also wish I could carry on talking but I got a load of work from my teachers today and should start on it asap_ **

**_To: goldstar_ **

**_just in case your roomie invites over all her friends without telling you again?_ **

**_From: goldstar_ **

**_Exactly that. You’re starting to get it, Annie_ **

**_To: goldstar_ **

**_you act like i don’t have an equally terrible roommate_ **

**_From: goldstar_ **

**_True, true_ **

**_Anyway, I’ll talk to you in a couple of hours, probably :) See you!_ **

**_To: goldstar_ **

**_bye, good luck!!_ **

Even though the conversation was short, Anne’s mood was suddenly dropped from seething all the way down to cool and chill. Somehow, the good Cathy always made her feel better about living with the terrible Cathy. Probably because they could both understand each other’s situation.

Reading back through the conversation one more time before logging off, Anne focused on that one message she sent. _“I think we should just leave our roommates and become each other’s roommates instead.”_

Oh, the things she would do for that message to become true and for the Cathy she shared a room with to be swapped with the Cathy she loved to text. Even though that would never happen, it was still fun to think about; a world where she didn’t hate her roommate. A world where her roommate was the person she enjoyed talking to the most.

How great that would be.


	2. Chapter Two

As she had lamented to _goldstar_ Cathy the evening before, Anne had a full day of classes. So far, she had somehow waded through hours of lecturing that seemed like they would never end, and was now sitting at a booth in a diner nearby the university campus. It was currently an hour break between her previous class and her next one, so, desperately needing a breather from the site, Anne had met up with Kat and Anna to grab some food before she returned to university.

Whilst those two were each tugging at the menu and debating over what to order, Anne zoned out for a moment to check through her social media. By checking her social media, she actually meant checking her messages; specifically, her message thread with _goldstar_. She hadn’t had the chance to talk to her Cathy all day, apart from a quick good morning message she had sent just before she left the dorm room. There was no instant reply, but that didn’t bother Anne much because she was already up early and she knew that her Cathy didn’t have a good sleeping pattern. If she didn’t respond, she was asleep, and if she was sleeping, that was good for her health.

When Anne opened up the app, she was ironically greeted with the user she had been thinking of having made a new post sitting atop her dashboard. It was a simple photograph with a filter over the top, nothing too special or out of the ordinary. The closer she looked at the picture though, the more shocked Anne got.

It wasn’t the photo in itself that was surprising; Anne had originally started following Cathy because she thought the photos that she posted were pretty and enjoyed the theme of the blog. No, what was shocking was that she was 99.9% sure she recognised the location in the photo. Not because it was an iconic and famous landmark like the Statue of Liberty or the Eiffel Tower, but because she had been there many times. Hell, she lived right near there!

The image depicted one of the main shopping squares in her city, filled with people filing in and out of the high street stores that stood around the block. In the centre of the photo stood the entrance of the shopping mall, which appeared to be the main subject of the image. It was just like how it always was when Anne visited there herself; slightly busy but not uncomfortably so. If she wanted to, Anne could have walked out the restaurant right then and walked over there, and the scene would be pretty much identical to the one pictured.

Despite her certainties, she still wanted to make sure she wasn’t being delusional. Tearing through Kat and Anna’s conversation, Anne turned her phone around for them both to see the screen and asked, “Is this the town centre?”

“Uh, yeah.” Kat took a second to gaze at the photo before raising a questioning eyebrow in Anne’s direction.

“Why do you have a pic of the mall on your phone?” Anna queried, “More importantly, why can’t you recognise the mall of your own city?” The follow up question earned a giggle from Kat, which Anna looked proud of.

“Doesn’t matter.” No time to explain, Anne dismissed the questions and quickly pulled her phone back. Without even thinking about her message, she rapidly typed a text to _goldstar_ Cathy, the excited smile never leaving her face.

-

It was one thing having a day of no classes; that meant Cathy had a day of relaxation and without the stress or pressures of waking up and darting from class to class. However, fortunately for her, Lady Luck had also decided to assign her roommate a full class day on the same day as her no class day. In other words, on Fridays, Cathy got a whole day of freedom from Anne Boleyn.

This meant productivity and peace and quiet. She could spend the time doing whatever she wanted without having the constant irritance of Anne looming around the dorm, threatening to interrupt her at any given moment.

As always, Cathy had seized the day. Firstly, with Anne leaving the dorm early for classes, she was able to sleep a decent amount after staying up so late. For once, she felt reasonably refreshed when she woke up and got out of bed, glad to greet an empty dorm room. Then she was able to get her homework completed in prime time before she left the dorm to meet up with her friends, Catherine and Jane, to go out and shop. Finally home from the mall, though, Cathy was relieved to see that she still had a few hours left of freedom, and decided to spend the rest of them lazed on the sofa of their lounge with a series she had been meaning to start on Netflix playing.

Meanwhile, Anne was probably tired and wasting away at a classroom desk. She was probably bored and frustrated because she couldn’t understand whatever sort of easy work she had been set for that day. Even though it was mean, Cathy enjoyed the thought. Relaxing peacefully whilst her roommate from hell stressed over her courses? It was what they both respectively deserved, at least according to Cathy.

Picturing her roommate’s suffering was quickly cut short by the vibration of her phone next to her signify a message had been sent. She took her eyes away from the TV screen and picked up the phone, a smile involuntarily spreading across her face when she realised it was from Anne.

No, not Anne Boleyn. The other Anne. The Anne she met on Tumblr, who, though she shared a name with the literal incarnation of irritance, was great. Cathy secretly theorised that Tumblr Anne was God’s way of apologising to all the other Annes in the world for sharing a name with such a demonic caricature. She hadn’t shared that thought process with anyone though; no one knew about her blog and Tumblr Anne didn’t even know roommate Anne’s real name - only her bothersome personality. Regardless, they both agreed that Anne Boleyn was the worst person ever. Well, maybe second, but only to Tumblr Anne’s own roommate.

Originally excited to open and read the message, Cathy grew a little confused to see that Anne had only sent her own post. However, she quickly followed it up with a second message.

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_did you take this picture yourself or get it from online?_ **

The picture _greensleeves_ Anne was talking about was her most recent upload and a photo that Cathy had actually only taken a few hours before that very same day. It was a picture of the town square she had captured whilst she was there with Catherine and Jane to save the memory. Upon returning home though, she realised she quite liked it, so she quickly ran it under a filter and uploaded it.

That was meant to be the end of it, but apparently, for some reason, this picture had caught Anne’s eye.

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_I took it_ **

**_I thought I already told you I take all my own pictures lol_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_it’s not that i doubt you took it! i know you’re a great photographer_ **

**_buuuut_ **

**_this is gonna sound really weird_ **

**_i know that mall_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_???_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_it’s the cardinal mall, right?_ **

Cathy blinked in surprise at what she was reading but continued to type.

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Yeah_ **

**_But how do you know that?_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_cathy, i literally live in that city_ **

**_i go to that mall all the time_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Wait WHAT_ **

**_??????_ **

She was already surprised, but the shock didn’t alleviate - it just built up. Cathy read through the message thread a few times as Anne typed a response, just to check if she was reading everything correctly. Afterward, when she was certain, she even pinched herself to make sure it wasn’t a dream. It was not.

Of all the people she could have met and befriended online, she met someone in this close of a range to her. Someone who literally lived in the same city and was familiar with the same streets and stores as her. In fact, considering their similar ages, it wouldn’t be such an absurd guess that they might even go to the same university. Maybe even share a class. At this point, she was rushing ahead with the thoughts and opportunities that clouded her mind, but the sudden revelations filled her with both nerves and excitement; she couldn’t help it.

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_literally what i just said! i live here_ **

**_i know this might sound weird so you don’t need to answer if you don’t want to but_ **

**_do you live here too or are you just visiting?_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Anne, I live here too!!_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_SERIOUSLY_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_YES_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_that’s so fucking cool omfg_ **

**_we literally live so close to each other and we never would have even realised_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_We could have passed each other on the street and not even realised omg_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_EXACTLY_ **

**_we could literally meet up at like any time we wanted_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_We could_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_would you really want that?_ **

**_like, i know we only just found this out, so i’m just asking_ **

**_bc i understand if not but i would really want to_ **

**_but only if it’s okay with you ofc_ **

**_:)_ **

Before responding, Cathy took another few moments to read through the messages once more and take the new information in. Specifically, the part where Tumblr Anne was asking to meet up in person. On one hand, she felt a sense of security in the anonymity of their friendship - only sharing her real name and age allowed her to be completely and utterly herself whilst around Anne, who had also only shared the same details. Of course, now she had additionally shared her city, but she was sure there were hundreds of other Cathys in London. Annes too. In fact, she shared a room with another Anne.

On the other hand, though, this was her Tumblr Anne. The Anne who she had known for quite a while now and, though they hadn’t shared their faces or voices with each other, Cathy felt like she could trust her enough to let her in and see and meet the real her in the flesh. In return, Cathy would get the same - to see and meet the real _greensleeves_ Anne in person. They were already well accustomed to each other’s personalities and enjoyed each other’s company, so what would go wrong by simply talking in person instead of over a text message?

And who would say no to a little adventure? Well, usually Cathy would, but this felt like a good way to expand her horizons and take a small leap outside of her comfort zone. It would be a step in a promising direction, and could even encourage her to make even greater jumps in the future.

With these reasons in mind, the inner debate Cathy had with herself was quickly resolved. She began to type back a message to Anne.

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_It’s okay with me! I wanna meet you in person too_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_omgomgomg this is all so sudden but i’m so happy_ **

**_i’m smiling like an idiot in public HAHAHA_ **

**_my friends are like wtf anne_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Awww Annie_ **

**_You’re secretly super soft_ **

**_But good thing I’m home alone, I’d probably have random members of the public wondering what’s got me so happy if I wasn’t_ **

‘Probably’ was an understatement. With the bright smile and excited look in her eyes, Cathy was clearly brimming with joy at what was happening.

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_lucky you!_ **

**_anyway, should we get planning on where and when?_ **

**_or leave the details til later_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_I’m free right now_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_okay, same_ **

**_soooooooooo_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Should we finally send pics of our faces so we actually know who to approach when we meet?_ **

Despite being the one who asked the question, the nervousness she was feeling before began to bubble up again at the pit of Cathy’s stomach. In a matter of seconds, Cathy might be revealing her face to Tumblr Anne and thus ripping away the first layer of anonymity between the pair. 

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_noooo not rn let’s leave it as a surprise til the last minute_ **

**_makes it more exciting_ **

Nevermind.

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_How do we do that?_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_idk_ **

**_before we meet, we’ll describe our outfit beforehand or come up with a sign or specific location so we can recognise each other_ **

**_only if you’re okay with it though_ **

**_because i now realise how weird it is to ask to meet someone without seeing each other’s face first_ **

_Leave your comfort zone, Cathy. Think of it like a blind date. Except not a date because you’re friends._ Wait, why was she even thinking of that?

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_No, that sounds like fun_ **

**_Let’s do it_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_really?_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Yeah! We’ll just think of sign to know it’s each other like you said_ **

**_Anyway, any idea of where to meet? Or when?_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_idk where, but the best time for me is probably this sunday coming_ **

**_i got no classes and no plans_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_I’m free this Sunday too, but only after I do something at uni. So is the evening good?_ **

Ugh, why did she have to agree to help the university librarian organise books on that specific Sunday? Why not any other Sunday, or any other day of the week for that matter? It was a kind gesture back then but now Cathy was suddenly immensely regretting it.

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_evening is good_ **

**_7?_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Seven is good_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_great!!!_ **

**_you can pick a location because i picked the date and time_ **

Where should Cathy go to meet her online best friend for the first time on Sunday at seven pm? She took a moment to think about it but despite her largely limitless options a rather obvious choice was quick to surface at the top of her mind.

It was a coffee shop called the Ozone Coffee Makers, one which Cathy frequented enough to be on a first name basis with most of the employees, and she was fairly certain they all remembered her order by now. The place seemed like the best option because it was only a few streets away from the photo of the town centre that Anne had recognised, so her friend shouldn’t have trouble finding her way here. Additionally, because she was close enough with the workers, if a worst case scenario did happen, she knew she was in safe hands. Stranger danger, after all, even if she hated to be distrustful of Anne.

There were two more reasons. One was that she simply enjoyed the drinks there, so it was a bit of self indulgence. The second was that she wanted to show Anne someplace special to her; a place she had mentioned a few times in their texts but never outright named until now.

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Do you know the Ozone Coffee Makers?_ **

**_It’s a coffee shop like two minutes walking distance from the Cardinal_ **

**_If you do, I think that would be a great place to meet_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_it’s a date then ;)_ **

For some reason, Cathy’s heart jumped a little higher at that message than it did at all the others, despite her nerves and excitement being present since the start of the conversation.

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Told you you had a soft spot for me Annie_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_i’m full of surprises_ **

**_i wanna stay but my food just got here_ **

**_plus my friends are staring at me and wondering why i’m smiling so much lol_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Aww, I made you smile that much?_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_shhhh_ **

**_you’ll just have to see for yourself on sunday_ **

**_i’ll talk to you probably when i’m home from classes_ **

**_see you soon (and on sunday!)_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Talk soon (and yes on Sunday) :)_ **

With the conversation over, Cathy put her phone down once more and was left to bask in the anticipation caused by the conversation she just had. Both giddy excitement and dainty nervousness swum around her, but one thing was for certain; Cathy couldn’t wait for Sunday evening at seven pm. Could time just speed up?

Some hours that felt much too short for Cathy’s liking later, she realised to be careful what you wish for because in walked her wretched roommate, home from classes. Cathy discreetly looked at the time on her phone to make sure she wasn’t home early (she wouldn’t put it past Anne to skip her final classes), but the remaining time alone in the apartment really had flown by that quickly.

One of the only good things about Anne returning home on a Friday was that she always looked tired or annoyed or disgruntled, but, to make it even worse, she just didn’t today. Rather, she had an energetic bounce in her step and a happy energy just radiating off of her. If Cathy didn’t hate her so much, the joy would have been contagious.

Anne barely spared Cathy a second glance as she walked through the lounge and to her bedroom. Wow, clearly she was really happy if a merciful side was showing. What had put her in such a good mood? Something stupid, probably. Well, whatever it was, Cathy refused to let it dampen her own similar mood of elation. After all, whatever was causing Anne’s happiness was certainly no where near as exciting as the plans Cathy had made earlier that day.

Cathy had certainly won.


	3. Chapter Three

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_you know what’s really unfair?_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_What?_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_the fact that my roommate is really pretty_ **

**_like, she doesn’t deserve it_ **

**_why did god have to make all the terrible people hot_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Wow, Anne_ **

**_Anyone would think you like her_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_I DONT_ **

**_i can just appreciate she’s not ugly_ **

**_unfortunately_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Relax, I’m just joking around lol_ **

**_If it’s any consolation, my roommate is also really pretty_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_wOw CaThY_ **

**_aNyOnE wOuLd ThInK yOu LiKe HeR_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Oh shush_ **

**_I can’t believe I was comforting you and this is how you repay me_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_HAHAHAHAH_ **

**_but seriously it’s not fair_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_I know_ **

**_Why does SHE get to have really pretty brown hair and green eyes?_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_and why does mine have to have cute curls and golden flecks in her eyes and a really nice figure gfdgjsdfk_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Sounds like you spend a lot of time staring at her_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_more like glaring_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Oh, I forgot_ **

**_You can just “appreciate she’s not ugly” ;)_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_shut upppp cathy_ **

**_jk ily but still_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Fine, I’ll stop_ **

**_For now!_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_lmao_ **

**_anyway i think i’m going to head to sleep now_ **

**_given that it’s 2:51am_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_That’s a smart idea_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_exactly, you should sleep too if it’s that much of a good idea_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_I might try if you really want me to_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_just make sure you’re up in time for tomorrow / today!!_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Annie, I might sleep late but I don’t sleep in until seven pm lmao_ **

**_And I definitely wouldn’t sleep in on the day I’m meeting you irl, I’m too excited to sleep :)_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_awwww_ **

**_i’ll never doubt you again!_ **

**_but i will go to sleep right now_ **

**_goodnight, cathy! see you in like 16 hours or something_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Night, see you then_ **

**_Sleep well <3_ **

The green dot next to Anne’s username disappeared only seconds after Cathy sent her goodnight text, labelling her inactive. Cathy smiled at the screen, locking her phone and laying in bed for a moment in thought. 

Even though it had just been one day between arranging to meet and meeting, it felt like it had dragged on. Now though, even if it was almost three in the morning, it was Sunday. Later that day, in the evening, she would finally meet _greensleeves_ Anne in person. Excitement was a far understatement of Cathy’s emotions. If she lived alone, she might have allowed her to get the electrified energy out in a more active way, but she at least had to be considerate of her roommate who was undoubtedly fast asleep in the next room over.

Reaching her hand underneath her bed, Cathy slid out her laptop and propped it up on her knees. It might have been three in the morning, but she wasn’t planning on getting some sleep for another two hours at least. With the silence of nighttime inviting her in and the exuberated emotions running rampant around her mind, she was quick to begin typing on a new document. Writing always was a great way for her to get her emotions out.

In the room next door though, Anne groaned and, for the third night running, grabbed her earphones from her bedside table. Why did her roommate continuously decide that the prime time for typing was always after she decided to sign off and go to sleep? Plugging the pods in as some sort of ear defender, Anne turned around and faced the wall away from the door. It was going to be another long night.

-

Anne was correct in predicting that it was going to be a long night to get to sleep, but somehow the day managed to feel even longer when she woke up. From the second she opened her eyes, she could already feel the butterflies darting around her stomach and the elated feeling in her chest as one thought came to her mind. Today was the day; the day she would finally meet _goldstar_.

An hour later, Cathy woke up and went through the exact same process. A similar spark of excitement pulled her into awakeness and her first instinct was to immediately check the time on her phone to see how many more hours there were until she was to meet up with _greensleeves_. 12:03pm; six hours and fifty seven minutes until she would be sat in the Ozone Coffee Makers, united in person with Anne.

As exciting as that was, she of course had regretfully promised to lend the college librarian a hand in organisation and catering that same day, and that was coming first. Sighing, Cathy pulled herself out of bed and began to begrudgingly get ready. If only she hadn’t volunteered, then maybe she could be getting ready to meet _greensleeves_ right now instead of later.

Still, a promise was a promise and it wasn’t the end of the world. She would still be meeting _greensleeves_ at the end of the day, and hopefully this would help occupy her time until the nineteenth hour came. Plus, Cathy did really want the extra brownie points to help her a few years down the road when references became important. She supposed that it wasn’t such a bad situation after all, albeit a little frustrating.

Thus began a day of the two roommates unknowingly looking forward to the exact same event. Whilst Cathy spent hours stacking and labelling new books for the old librarian, Anne stayed in the dorm room and attempted to speed the hours up by indulging in a mix of Netflix and mindless doodling in one of her sketchbooks. Apparently, this was an effective pastime, because six pages into her book and an unknown amount of episodes later, Anne checked her phone for the time and was a little taken aback at what her screen displayed.

6:37pm. Shit.

There was only a miniscule twenty three minutes left until she was due to arrive at the Ozone Coffee Makers. That window of time was tiny! She could barely fit an episode of the sitcom she was watching into that space, let alone getting ready to go out and meet _goldstar_ Cathy. Anxiety about being late further fuelled the fire that was already feeding off of her excitement, and, without wasting a second, Anne jumped up from her bed.

She didn’t even bother to turn off her laptop playing the TV show, nor close her sketchbook. If she had time, she would do that on the way out. For now though, the shower was her priority as she raced to the bathroom door, only to find it closed. And locked.

Anne should have expected it. Of all the times she needed her bathroom the most, her roommate would be using it. She hadn’t even heard her roommate return from wherever she was that day, but now she wished she had. It was like Cathy Parr purposefully looked for opportunities to sabotage her day, even though she had no idea about Anne’s plans. Plans that were now happening in twenty two minutes.

“Hurry up!” Anne impatiently banged her fist on the door, not even bothering to try and work it out nicely. She was in a rush and, given their rocky relationship, that was a futile effort.

The sudden and loud explosive pounding on the door startled Cathy as she was applying her makeup, causing her to accidentally jog her wrist and smudge her eyeliner. She wasn’t overdoing the look, but she did want to look presentable and make a good first impression for the time she met _greensleeves_. Now, though, Anne Boleyn had ruined that with her loudness and her impatience.

“Oh my God, Anne!” Cathy yelled through the door, taking a wipe and attempting to fix the damage that had been done. She didn’t have the time to be dealing with her roommate, especially not if she was in a troublemaking mood like this, “Can’t you just be fucking patient?”

“Just hurry up. I need to use the shower.”

“I’ve been out literally all day, Anne.” Cathy grumbled, staring at the door in the mirror as if Anne would see her hardened look, “You’ve had all day to shower and you have the rest of the night as well.”

“I don’t have the rest of the night!” Anne banged on the door once more, “I need the shower now, I have plans.”

“So do I!” Cathy retaliated.

“What plans, Cathy? Oh, don't tell me, let me guess. You’re going to go return a book to the library.”

“I’m meeting a friend.”

“I forgot you had friends.” Anne jibed but it fell on ears that didn’t really care about what she had to think, “Listen, I’m sure whatever nerd you’ve befriended won’t care that you’re a little late.”

“If you shut the fuck up, maybe I’ll finish in here faster because I won’t be being distracted by you all the time!”

Surprisingly, the only retaliation Cathy received after that comment was a huff and the sound of Anne’s body collapsing against the wall as she leant and impatiently waited. Had she not arranged to meet _greensleeves_ , Cathy would have purposefully taken as long as possible in the bathroom to apply her makeup, just so Anne’s own plans were stalled. Unfortunately, she had to be punctual in arriving at the Ozone, so that idea was crushed as soon as she thought of it.

A few minutes later, Cathy was finished with her preparations and reluctantly opened the door, knowing that Anne would still be waiting there. It took a couple of seconds for Anne to realise that Cathy was out of the bathroom because she had taken to closing her eyes and leaning against the wall, but in those seconds Cathy couldn’t help but notice the stressed look she had.

_Come on, don’t feel guilty for Anne Boleyn,_ she thought to herself. That inner encouragement was only supported by the way Anne shoved past her and slammed the door shut when she noticed that the bathroom was finally vacant, plus the memories of their yelling just minutes ago. Cathy was right; she definitely shouldn’t feel bad for the stress. It wasn’t like Anne didn’t deserve it, and Cathy certainly wouldn’t let lingering guilt about potentially upsetting her ruin the night she had been looking forward to.

So, shaking her roommate from mind, she returned to her bedroom for the final time to grab her jacket, keys, money and phone. There was one last check over of her appearance in the mirror and then she was finally confident to leave the house, texting _greensleeves_ that she was on her way.

Whilst Cathy walked to the Ozone Coffee Makers, Anne was certain that she had just beat the world record for fastest shower ever. She was in and out in a flash, grabbing a towel and sprinting to her bedroom in a way that would challenge Usain Bolt. After that, it was a quick process of drying, changing and then doing her makeup. Luckily, Cathy seemed to have left the house whilst she was showering, so there was no chance of being stalled even more by her nightmare roommate.

When she was finally done, Anne grabbed her phone and checked the time. 6:59pm. On the bright side, she was finished getting ready by seven! But that didn’t change the fact that she had approximately one minute to get to the Ozone, which was about a seven minute trek if she was speed walking. She didn’t even have her shoes on yet.

Feeling a little guilty for her tardiness, Anne sent a quick message to _goldstar_ to explain that she would be a little late, but she was finally on her way. She considered taking the blame because, thinking about it, Cathy did have a point; she did have all day to get showered and ready. Then again, she didn’t really want to damage her pride and ruin the night that was to come, so she didn’t bother.

With the message sent and her shoes on, she finally picked up her own set of keys and stuffed them into her pocket along with her phone and money. At seven on the dot, she closed the door behind her and left an empty apartment, on her way to finally meet _goldstar._

Meanwhile, Cathy sat in the corner of the coffee shop, alone. The streets were darkening at this time but somehow the LED litten booth tables and the coffee machine ambience felt comforting to Cathy. Maybe the fact that her best friend was going to walk through that entrance door at any second was contributing to that feeling too.

According to the clock hanging on the wall, it was seven. Her Anne was meant to be here by now. Then again, there was still fifty nine seconds left of this minute, so maybe she was just down the street. God, Cathy had to stop worrying. She really tried to, but as the clock went to 7:01pm and then to 7:02pm, she couldn’t help but feel the nerves start to overtake the excitement.

Although she didn’t want to seem clingy or impatient, Cathy began to wonder if it was a good idea to text _greensleeves_ about where she was and when she would be there. When no new person had entered the almost empty coffee shop by 7:04pm, but plenty of people had walked past in those two minutes, she finally decided to send a text. That was when she saw that _greensleeves_ had already contacted her first.

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_sorry i’m running a tiny bit late my roommate was being a bitch AGAIN_ **

**_i’m on my way now, i’ll try to be as fast as i can_ **

**_see you soon!!_ **

The string of texts couldn’t help but elicit a chuckle from Cathy. Of course it was the roommate. A similar thing almost happened to her with roommate Anne as she tried to leave the dorm, so she couldn’t really blame _greensleeves_ Anne.

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Your roommate truly is the worst_ **

**_Even worse than mine at this point, getting in the way of us meeting!!  
  
_ ** ********_But it’s fine, I’ll see you in a couple mins :)_

A couple of minutes. That was all there was until _greensleeves_ walked through the door. If she knew the exact time, Cathy would have been doing a giddy countdown in her head until the exact second. Before she knew it, she was busying herself in a train of excited thoughts about what was about to happen. Submitting to her habits, she zoned out, but not for long. Only minutes later she was pulled out of her mind by the sound of the bell above the door chiming, signifying a new person had entered the coffee shop.

It had to be _greensleeves_.

Cathy’s head shot up from the spot on the table she was staring at and her thrilled eyes landed on the figure who stood in the doorway, heart racing. Then, suddenly, heart dropping as she recognised the person who had just entered.

It was Anne Boleyn.

No. This had to be some sort of sick joke or excitement induced hallucination. Of all the times they could bump into each other outside of their dorm room, it had to be now? When Cathy was set to be meeting _greensleeves_ , who could possibly be about to enter right behind Anne?

She swore that Anne set out to ruin anything and everything good in her life, whether it was intentional or not. But not tonight. When she left the dorm room, Cathy had promised to herself that she wouldn’t let thoughts of Anne ruin her night. Well, apparently, she also had to make sure the real Anne didn’t ruin her night either.

Before _greensleeves_ Anne arrived, Cathy knew she had to force roommate Anne to leave and go somewhere else. There were other coffee shops open nearby, surely she could go to one of those? If not, Cathy would literally be willing to pay her to leave. With these two ideas in mind, she suddenly stood up and marched to Anne, who was still standing at the entrance and looking around inquisitively.

“What the _fuck_ are _you_ doing here?” A voice was suddenly thrown at Anne, who was scanning the tables at the front side of the coffee shop to try and find _goldstar_. She looked around in confusion at the source of the question to find an incredibly angry looking Catherine Parr.

“No, what are _you_ doing here?” Anne demanded. She didn’t know how to process the nasty shock that had suddenly overcome her, so just turned it into what she associated Cathy with the most; rage.

Seriously, why was Cathy here? She had never bumped into her outside of campus before, so why did the first and only time have to be right now? Especially because one of these people in the coffee shop had to be _goldstar,_ watching her and waiting for her to arrive.

“I told you, I have plans!”

“Well, so do I!”

“Just get out, please.” Cathy requested, a desperate sigh in her voice as she noticed the clock in the corner of her eye and was reminded that _greensleeves_ was due to arrive very soon, “There’s another coffee shop on the next street, go there instead.”

“Why don’t you go to that other coffee shop then? If it’s so interchangeable, I’m sure you wouldn’t mind.”

“No, you don’t understand! Listen, Anne, this is really imp-”

Cathy stopped, her eyes suddenly widening.

“This is really what?” Anne demanded, crossing her arms.

But Cathy had stopped listening. A realisation had just dawned on her, crashing into her like a tonne of bricks. It couldn’t be true, could it? But the more she thought about it, the more it suddenly made sense; the worse it got and the more she wanted to scold herself for being so incredibly stupid.

Tumblr Anne and roommate Anne. Both were college students just a few months older than her. They both had a roommate they despised and, thinking about it, the exact same class schedule. Tumblr Anne was due to arrive here because she had plans, but here was roommate Anne, having arrived here with plans.

Everything went from confusing to making sense all at once, and the more Cathy thought about certain details, the more she could connect the dots. How hadn’t she noticed this before?

“Well, are you gonna answer me?” Anne interrupted her train of thought, “Because, if not-”

“ _Greensleeves_.” Cathy, unsure of what to say, simply said the username aloud.

“What?” Anne tried to keep her cool but it was easy to see in her eyes that she was taken aback. Of course she was, that was her online handle. An online handle that no one, not even her own cousin, knew about. So, how did Cathy suddenly know about it? Unless-

“I’m Cathy. I mean, _goldstar_ Cathy.”

Well, that just confirmed the suspicions that were finally starting to creep their way into Anne’s thoughts. But no. Surely it was a silly joke. This couldn’t be happening. Cathy had just read her messages whilst she wasn’t looking and decided to pull this prank on her. The real _goldstar_ was sitting at one of these booths now, watching the interaction and waiting for Anne to go sit with her.

And yet, as Anne tore her eyes away from Cathy and scanned the customers of the coffee shop, there really was no _goldstar._ There was no university girl sitting on her own, just a group of friends in one corner, a couple in their twenties by the window and what looked like two siblings near the counter. So that meant…

Cathy really was _goldstar_.

With this fact in mind, the evidence surrounding it became abundantly clear. They were both called Cathy, for starters. Both of them were university students living in London and, at their university, they each had a roommate who they detested. Tumblr Cathy was also meant to be at the Ozone, but instead here was roommate Cathy. If that wasn’t all enough, Cathy Parr had just blatantly confessed to being the user Anne had grown so close with.

It didn’t make sense. It was too much at once. She was mad at herself for not figuring it out, confused because in her head Tumblr Cathy and roommate Cathy were two completely different types of people and upset because she apparently cared for Cathy but also really hated her, and vice versa.

Anne was never that great at expressing her emotions - at least, not heat of the moment emotions like these ones. When she was overwhelmed, she knew she tended to react poorly. And, even if she was convinced she blindly hated Cathy up until this point, she was suddenly shown that there was some part of Cathy that she adored and loved and trusted.

Even if she hated roommate Cathy, Anne wasn’t about to pour a firehose of abuse out at Tumblr Cathy. _God, why are you even differentiating between them anymore? They’re the same person!_

“I need to go.” Anne decided aloud, her voice suddenly void of rage. Despite being in a state of heightened emotion, her tone was empty. It was like there was too much going on; her brain couldn’t pick what to convey the most.

“Wait, are you-” Cathy attempted but Anne just shook her head, giving her a firm look in the eyes. It was the most sincere interaction she had shared with Anne, and Cathy knew not to try and do damage control right now.

Without a goodbye, Anne spun on her heel and left the Ozone Coffee Makers behind, walking back out into the nighttime. She knew straight away that she couldn’t return to her dorm, so her next instinct was to pull out her phone and dial the first number she trusted. It rang only once.

“Hey, Anne, what’s up?” Her cousin’s cheerful voice came out the receiving end and, though it was just soundwaves against her ear drum, it somehow managed to cheer Anne up.

“Hey, Kitty.” Anne forced a smile even though Kat couldn’t see, “Can I stay around your dorm tonight? I’ll sleep on the sofa or something. I just… don’t wanna be at my place.”

“Yeah, sure.” Her cousin was quick to agree, “You don’t have to ask, y’know? You can just come whenever you want, if one of us are in you know we’ll let you in.”

“Thanks, Kat.” Anne sighed gratefully, speeding up her walk to make it back to the college campus as soon as possible.

“No problem. But are you okay? Is there a problem?”

“Just another stupid fight with my roommate. Don’t wanna be in the same dorm as her tonight.” Well, it wasn’t a total lie. Anne didn’t want to share a dorm with Cathy that night. It just wasn’t because of a fight.

“Oh, okay. Want me to make you a drink?”

“Please.”

“On it.” Anne heard some shuffling in the background and presumed Kat was getting up from whatever she was doing beforehand.

“Thanks, Kat.”

“You already said that.” Kat giggled.

“I know.” Anne managed to release a light chuckle too, “I’ll be there in, like, five minutes, okay?”

“Okay. See you soon.”

“See you soon.” Anne repeated back before hanging up the call, dropping her phone back into her pocket and continuing to make the walk back to the dorm.

Cathy watched Anne walk down the street for as long as she could until she disappeared around the corner. Not wanting to draw attention to herself anymore than it already had been, she quickly made her way over to the counter and ordered her usual before sitting down.

Luck was on her side when the coffee arrived quickly, perhaps the only good thing to come out of the entire ordeal. She sat there in thought, taking sips from the mug but not daring to leave yet. If Anne needed some alone time at the dorm, she would wait another hour or so before she came home too.

So she just sat, working her way through the mug of coffee and ordering a second one when that one was finished. On the outside, she probably looked like a depressed drinker, except she was relying on coffee and not alcohol. That would have been a comical thought to her had her mind not been so wrapped up in what was happening.

It was funny, because all her worries about _greensleeves_ were more along the lines of _what if she’s actually a creepy old man?_ Not for a second did Cathy once anticipate that Tumblr Anne and Anne Boleyn would be the same person, and yet, now she had realised it, that fact only made her feel stupid; it was so obvious this whole time.

After getting through the second cup of coffee and being the only customer left, Cathy took out a few notes from her pocket and placed them on the table. She didn’t bother counting the money; she couldn’t be bothered to do even the simplest of maths right now. Whoever collected the cash could just keep the extra as a tip.

When she got home to the campus a few minutes after leaving the Ozone, a fearful feeling began to really expose itself. It wasn’t the same as the giddy nerves she was feeling hours before. No, this was plain dread. Sighing, Cathy finally reached their front door and knew she couldn’t stall or avoid home any longer. She pushed the key in and entered.

Everything was how it had been left. There was no sign that Anne had even been through here, which raised Cathy’s eyebrows. Curious, she walked to the tiny hall that separated their bedrooms and noticed that Anne’s door was open just a crack. Not to be overwhelming, she gently pushed it open further and was greeted with the full sight of the room.

Her room was a complete mess. Clothes were strewn everywhere, dirty cups and plates that she hadn’t taken back out to the kitchen were loitered around the windowsill and her desk was home to random trinkets instead of her college work, like it was supplied for. Still, Cathy was not here to judge. Especially because, even if the room was full of objects, it felt empty. The owner was not inside of it.

Cathy sighed, about to make her leave until she noticed that the laptop on Anne’s bed was still on and whatever show she was streaming beforehand was paused. Assuming her roommate would not be returning to the dorm that night, Cathy took the initiative and approached to turn the laptop off. It was just the nice thing to do, after all.

A discarded sketchbook sitting atop the bed also caught Cathy’s eye as she waited for the screen to turn off, and she took a moment to gape at it. She wouldn’t lurk on the other drawings but the page that it was open on, which simply displayed the beginnings of a person’s eye, was mesmerising. She didn’t realise that her roommate was that talented at art.

Then again, she never asked.

Leaving the room when the laptop was powered off, she shut the door quietly behind her as if the room’s owner was actually asleep in there and she didn’t want to wake her up. Then, she walked to her own room, got changed and then laid in her own bed.

There was no texting _greensleeves_ to cheer her up that night for obvious reasons. There was also no writing, because Cathy just didn’t have the energy or the words to explain how she was feeling right now.

No, she just laid in bed and thought until sleep finally came. That wasn’t for a long time of reflection though, and as she finally felt herself dozing away, she still felt a little unsettled regardless.

For the first time ever, she was wishing that Anne Boleyn was sleeping in the room next door.


	4. Chapter Four

On a normal Monday, Cathy would wake up at around eleven in the morning, most often to the sound of crashing pots and pans in the kitchen, or occasionally the front door slamming closed. This Monday morning, however, Cathy slept right through until two in the afternoon. Even when she did wake up, it wasn’t to the sound of Anne turning the TV up just a little too much, nor was it her preparing a late lunch. No, it was just waking up to silence.

Had this happened in any other circumstance, Cathy would be thinking about how lucky she was. Getting a full amount of sleep had been a challenge for her ever since she first started living with Anne, so on the occasions that her roommate had stayed at a friend’s dorm for the night, Cathy made sure to live the opportunities to the fullest and celebrate the extra hours of fulfillment. Now, though, she would do anything to give them back.

Slowly standing up, stretching and then pulling herself from the warmth of her bed, Cathy thought about her roommate. Who was also her Tumblr best friend. It was still a little hard to wrap her head around that. Although it was a difficult realisation though, having spent the whole night before laying down and thinking about it as she tried to drift to sleep, Cathy was pretty certain on the steps she wanted to take now.

It was true that up until this point she hated Anne. If it wasn’t obvious enough, Anne’s messages were proof that this negative feeling was reciprocated generously. Yet, whilst she was so sure she knew who Anne was and was correct in hating her, she had been growing consistently closer with _greensleeves_ \- who just so happened to be the exact same person. Whether or not she liked it, Cathy loved Anne - or, at least, some aspect of her personality. On one level, Anne was her best friend. On the other, she was her worst enemy. It was an uncomfortable mix, Cathy knew, and that was why she was determined to set it straight.

How, though? As Cathy got dressed and then sauntered to the dorm’s kitchen for brunch, she began to brainstorm what she could type in a message to Anne. Communication was the key here, at least that was what Cathy had concluded. If she wanted to move forward, she couldn’t just leave the situation suspended. She and Anne both had to talk eventually, and Anne had had a whole night to herself to think things through as well - Cathy figured that now was a good enough time as any to open a conversation.

Thus, as she finally sat down at the dorm room sofa, Cathy balanced the plate of toast on the arm of the chair and pulled out her phone. If only they had bothered to exchange numbers, this would feel a lot easier. Of course, that was an obvious thing they should have done considering they were roommates. Even if they didn’t talk at all, they would be able to have each other down in case of emergencies or trouble at the dorm.

Now, though, Cathy had to face the consequences of being too petty to exchange phone numbers with Anne. Reluctantly, she opened up the Tumblr app and opened the messaging tab. The thread with _greensleeves_ was right at the top, as per usual, and, after a deep breath, Cathy tapped on it.

She was almost surprised to see that Anne hadn’t blocked her on Tumblr. Yet, at least. For a moment, Cathy allowed her eyes to gaze and read over the last message that was sent, one in which she had called Anne’s roommate ‘the worst’. What a different meaning that had now. A bitter laugh that was hoarse with sleep escaped her lips at what she had just read and a temptation began to burn at the pads of her thumbs to scroll up and read more of their old conversations. It would just take a simple swipe, after all.

No. She resisted the urge to scroll to their previous messages; she couldn’t allow the judgement she had already made to become clouded or skewed by things she read over now. Instead, she pulled up the keyboard and began typing furiously away. At first, she wrote a paragraph. That was backspaced, and then she wrote two more. A few times, she opened up the notes app and began typing potential messages in there.

Funny, she never got this nervous or thoughtful about what she was going to message _greensleeves_ before. Now, though, she was typing and backspacing and retyping tons of differently worded messages, trying to think of what best to say. In the end, she finally decided on what she was going to type.

Opening up the Tumblr app and the message thread once more, she deleted all the words that had already been written into the messaging box and instead wrote her final message - the one she would actually send. It wasn’t a paragraph like she originally intended, nor was it an essay like she had considered after that. No, Cathy wrote one simple message.

And then she pressed send.

-

There were many benefits of sleeping at Katherine Howard and Anna of Cleves’ dorm room. For starters, there was always a spare bed because those two had a tendency to ‘accidentally’ fall asleep in the same one ever since they started dating. Then, there was the fact that they always had something sweet in their kitchen cupboards - be it shop bought candy or something they had home baked together.

These were just two of the general pros that came with staying the night at Kat and Anna’s, but, depending on who you were, there might be even more personal rewards to claim. For Anne Boleyn, one of these used to be waking up in a dorm room that Cathy Parr was not also living in.

This morning though, it felt like that benefit had been revoked. Although she had promised Kat to crash on the sofa, she had slept in Anna’s bed the previous night after she had gone off to Kat’s room and not returned. When she woke up, there was still a heavy feeling in her mind as her morning thoughts were filled with the events of the night before.

Usually, she talked to either of the two who’s dorm room she was currently crashing in about her problems and they would give her the best advice. In this situation, however, that wasn’t really an option Anne had. Neither Kat nor Anna knew about Anne’s other account and she intended for it to stay that way. What was more, even if they did know about _greensleeves,_ she didn’t want them to know everything that had happened with Cathy. That just felt embarrassing to admit right now.

So she was left to deal with this on her own. Truthfully, her mind had been racing with thoughts ever since she had hung up the phone to Kat the night before, all the way until falling asleep in this bed and it was continuing now, from the second she woke up. To say Anne hadn’t already made decisions in the hours she had been contemplating the whole situation was a lie; the thing that was putting her off on admitting that she had was because they were simply hard and complicated decisions to make.

But she had made them, nonetheless. At this point, sitting up after a rocky night of sleep, Anne knew what she was going to do moving onward. Yes, since she had moved in with Cathy she and her roommate shared a mutual hatred of each other. There was no point trying to sugarcoat or deny that anymore, their texts to one another were unshakeable evidence of that fact. Yet, at the same time, since she had begun messaging Cathy, albeit unknowingly, she had grown gradually more comfortable with her, genuinely enjoying her company and conversation and strongly valuing their friendship.

When she balanced out the hatred for roommate Cathy and the love for _goldstar_ Cathy, there was a clear victorious option. No matter how much she hated Cathy as a roommate, she loved Cathy the best friend more. For that reason, even with a lot of pent up anger and frustrations, she couldn’t just throw away what they had built. First, she was going to attempt to fix things. If it went wrong, at least she could say she tried.

That was why she picked up her phone from the bedside table, ready to finally send Cathy a text and try to figure things out. To her dismay, however, upon picking up the device, the screen remained dark. She frowned, holding down the lock button for a few seconds, only for the low battery image to appear on the screen.

For fuck’s sake. Anne groaned to herself and looked around the room, but there was no visible charger already plugged in and she knew she couldn’t just snoop around Anna’s things for it. Huffing, Anne pulled herself out of bed and walked out of Anna’s bedroom, to the lounging/kitchen area of the dorm where Kat and Anna were already awake and sitting in.

“Finally, she arises!” Anna sarcastically cheered, spotting Anne emerge from the small hall that led to each bedroom and the bathroom. Kat looked up from the game she was playing on her Switch, gave her cousin a small wave, and then continued playing. By the look of concentration on her face and the sound of the game music, she was in the middle of a race and couldn’t be interrupted.

“Ha ha ha.” Anne dully said and rolled her eyes at Anna. She held up her phone, “D’you have a charger?”

“There should be one in my…” Anna then widened her eyes in realisation, “Oh, shit, sorry. I bought it to Kit’s room a few nights ago.”  
  


“I wonder why.” Anne commented.

Now Anna was rolling her eyes at Anne, “You’re lucky I’m still letting you use my charger after that comment.”

“She could just use mine.” Kat suddenly commented. Turns out she had been listening to the whole conversation despite her eyes fixated onto the screen. Anne just smirked at Anna.

“Kat! You’re meant to be on my side!” Anna exclaimed, and before they could break out into one of their little not-so-angry arguments, Anne walked back down the hall and headed into Kat’s room.

As promised, there they were; two chargers, each plugged on either side of the bed. Anne sat down at one side and plugged her phone in, impatiently waiting for the screen to light up and her phone to power on.

In reality it was only a few minutes, but to Anne it felt like an hour - probably due to all the thoughts she was having about messaging Cathy and wondering what she was doing. Was Cathy mad at her for evacuating the situation? Maybe Cathy wanted nothing to do with her. She might even be at the front desk of the university reception right now, demanding for a room swap.

Before she could trek further into the realm of bad possibilities, a saving grace in the form of her phone finally switching on pulled Anne back to thinking realistically. If, by small chance, Cathy had blocked her on Tumblr, she knew Cathy’s Instagram. If she was also blocked there, she could just use an alternate account.

These ideas were unnecessary, however, because as soon as Anne opened up her Tumblr app, the first thing that caught her eye was a blue notification dot sitting intimidatingly over the messaging tab. Even with all of its menace, though, she still found herself rapidly opening the tab and seeing who the message was from.

Of course, it was _goldstar._ That was a bit of a relief, because it at least insinuated that Cathy wanted to talk. Hopefully, she would have come to a similar conclusion that Anne had come to, and wanted to also think things through a little. She finally opened the message, and, instead of anything telltale about what Cathy was thinking, there was just one word.

**_From: goldstar_ **

**_Hey_ **

It was such a simple message and yet Anne couldn’t help but feel her heart pounding like a drum against her ribcage. Her eyes lingered over the timestamp of the message and then widened as she realised what it said. 2:24pm! Had she slept in for this long? Sure, she had been awake for about fifteen minutes now given the battery fiasco, but that didn’t change the fact that it was two in the afternoon.

When she woke up was not the most pressing matter on Anne’s mind right now though. She read through the simple ‘hey’ many times in her mind, wondering what she was supposed to reply. She also wondered why she was overthinking so much about someone just saying ‘hi’, as well as pondered over whether or not to read through the previous messages. She decided against it.

Eventually, Anne decided that if Cathy had texted her at all, she wanted to talk. Especially because she texted first. So, with that message in mind, she texted back a very similar response.

Cathy had spent the time since first sending Anne a simple ‘hey’ in complete anxiety. Who knew if she was even ready to talk, or if she ever would be? Every time Cathy got a notification, she would nervously look at what it said, only for it to be about someone liking her post or gaining a new follower. Whenever she heard footsteps outside the door, she turned out and expected Anne to walk straight in, but then had to constantly remind herself it was a communal hallway - this building belonged to other students just as much as it did to them.

Just as Cathy was beginning to give up hope that Anne was going to reply, she got yet another notification and her eyes tore to the screen for what felt like the thousandth time. Only this time it was not a Snapchat memory or a news alert - it was a message. A Tumblr message. From the user _greensleeves_.

Cathy bit her lip, which, for some reason, was trembling with nerves, and then opened the message. She didn’t know what she was expecting, but all she got was just as much as she had given.

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_hi_ **

Great, now she had Anne’s attention. Only now she needed to utilise it. Cathy scolded herself for not spending the time it took for Anne to respond to her message to begin drafting an essay to actually describe how she was feeling and what she wanted to do, but before she could even get around to that she received another message from _greensl_ \- wait, no, Anne.

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_sorry for my late response i was asleep and then my phone was dead_ **

Thinking what to type back, Cathy decided on a whim it was best to continue with being straightforward and blunt.

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_No worries_ **

**_I think we should meet up_ **

There were a few minutes between that text and Anne’s response, but Cathy didn’t leave the app whilst she waited. Instead, she took to watching Anne’s typing bubbles appear and disappear with bated breath, like Anne was having the same dilemma of typing and backspacing what she wanted to say. Finally, though, she texted back.

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_okay_ **

**_when_ **

**_where_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Dorm? Now?_ **

**_If it’s okay with you_ **

**_From: greensleeves_ **

**_ok give me a few mins_ **

**_i’m in my friends’ dorm it’s just below ours_ **

**_and then i’ll be there_ **

**_To: greensleeves_ **

**_Okat_ **

**_Okay*_ **

**_Lol_ **

Her shaking fingers really caused her to make a typo. It was a minor mistake and yet Cathy was harshly scolding herself for everything that went even remotely wrong.

Now, though, she was back in the waiting game. Just like she had been last night as she sat in the coffee shop, excitedly awaiting the arrival of _greensleeves._ This time, however, she knew exactly who _greensleeves_ was, and, though they were meeting up again, it was not for the same merry reasons. No, this was serious.

When she heard footsteps outside of the door a few minutes later, Cathy wanted to tell herself once again that it was just another student. This wasn’t an excuse anymore though, not with the sound of keys jamming around the lock, and definitely not when the door swung open only seconds later and there was a grim faced Anne Boleyn.

They shared a look that was broken only when Anne turned around to close the door behind her. There was an uncomfortable quietness that was broken only by the sound of Anne’s steps until she sat on the chair across from Cathy, and then their staring contest was continued.

“We need to talk about last night.” Cathy finally declared, cutting through the silence.

“I know.” Anne agreed, making history. The first thing they were actually united on! Well, apart from all the bonding through Tumblr messages.

“Shall I start?”

“Okay.”

“Anne…” Cathy began, pondering the words in her mind. She might pride herself on being a writer, but when it came to thinking up the words to say on the spot, she definitely had trouble. Eventually, she spoke again, and it was nothing but the truth, “Anne, I know I’ve treated you bad, and I’ve, like, talked shit about you, but, knowing that you’re _greensleeves,_ I do care about you.”

“I mean, I care about you too.” Anne admitted. She seemed a little shy, a direct contrast to how she presented herself around campus and to Cathy normally, “I care about the person behind _goldstar,_ right? And that’s you. So, even if there’s, like, this weird… weird overlap, I do care about you as well.”

“Then what do we do?” Cathy wanted them both to be involved in decision making. That and, admittedly, she had blatantly no idea of where to go on from here.

“I dunno.” Anne shrugged, “I’d say we should just be honest about what’s bothering us about each other, but I think we both know what that is now.” She held up her phone and Cathy couldn’t help but laugh a little at the joke. That was such a _greensleeves_ line.

“I mean, we could still talk about it. Like, civilly and honestly, because in those texts we were really painting each other out to be really shitty people.”

Anne nodded in agreement, “Okay. Uh, do you wanna start again?”

Cathy also nodded, and then thought. This was it. She was finally sitting face to face with Anne Boleyn and could tell her everything she absolutely despised about her. Had she been dreaming of this moment? Maybe. Did she expect it to occur like this, in a situation where she was genuinely mindful of upsetting her? Definitely not.

“Well, you might have gathered it from what I’ve messaged you but you always wake me up, you’re really loud and mouthy and never listen to what I have to say… it just feels really inconsiderate, Anne. It’s like you’re always looking for a fight.”

Speaking the reasons out loud, Cathy couldn’t help but feel like they were stupid. Had she really been projecting so much hatred onto this one girl simply for being a little loud?

“That’s just what I’m like, though.” Anne replied, “Loud, I mean. I guess it is rude to just not listen and I admit to purposefully saying spiteful things to trigger something, but I can’t help, y’know, being like this.”

“No, I don’t mind if it’s just your personality. I mean stuff like moving around. In the morning, you just crash around the place as if you’re the only one living here. You accidentally stay connected to the central speaker and play your music or videos on it out of the blue. I dunno, it’s just… startling. And it gets annoying.”

“Oh.” Anne pursed her lips, no retaliation, “I’ll… I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Okay.” There was a moment of silence in which both girls sat amazed in what had just happened. Was this really all it took to make amends? Had they been being nasty this whole time when such a short conversation had solved half their problems? Eager to solve the other half, Cathy continued, “What about you? I mean, you have problems with me too.”

“A lot of it was because of how you would react because of all the noise I was making. It just felt like you were judging me or giving me death glares and stuff, and because you’re here for an academic major and I’m not, it just felt like you were looking down on me or something.” Her eyes darted to the side as if in shame for admitting that piece of insecurity, “And, I know you said I wake you up, but you also keep me up with all that typing. And it also feels like you start fights on purpose as well.”

“First of all, Anne, know that those glares and looks and stuff weren’t because I was judging you for your major. I don’t care what you study here, it’s up to you and we both got in so you must be good at it.” Cathy smiled awkwardly yet reassuringly, “You’re right about the glares being because of the noise, though. I thought if I showed enough anger about it then you would just take the initiative and stop. In the future, I’ll just ask you to turn it down a little or something. As for the typing, I’ll just buy a silent plugin keyboard or something, or at least try not to type so hard.”

“Is this all it took?” Anne asked aloud after they both sat in Cathy’s words for a little while, “Did we really just have to have this conversation and then just stop hating each other? God, now I feel like we’re both dumb.” She joked.

“I can’t believe it either.” Cathy smiled a little at the joke, “I guess it didn’t help that I was kinda quiet and shy when we first met.”

“Well, I bet me walking into the dorm room two hours after I was meant to arrive and yelling my arrival also didn’t help.”

Both of them laughed a little at the memory. Previously, they had both looked back on it with anger. One with resent towards the loud girl and the other with resent towards the quiet one. Now, though, they were finding humour in it. That felt like a weight off of both their shoulders.

“Yeah, maybe not.” Cathy laughed before collecting herself and her tone turning serious again, “Uh, Anne?”

“Yeah?”

“Sorry. For making you think that about me, and being loud at night, and saying those bad things about you, and then also picking fights with you over stupid things.”

“Cathy, it’s fine, honestly. We’ve talked it out now.” Anne smiled a little at her, “But… I’m also sorry. For the same things. Like, being loud during the day and starting arguments on purpose and chatting shit about you… to you.”

“Well, like you said, it’s fine.” Cathy responded, “We’re both finally being honest with each other and we’re both gonna be more mindful and change a little to make sure that we’re both satisfied living here.”

“Yeah, we are.” Anne nodded, “God, I didn’t realise how glad I would be to have this conversation.”

“Me neither. I was kind of freaking out about it.”

“Awww, wanna go message _greensleeves_ about it?” Anne teased.

“Like you wouldn’t be straight on the phone to reply.” Cathy countered with the roll of her eyes. They were bickering again, but this time it wasn’t hostile. It was normal. It was friendly. It was nice.

“I mean, you’re not wrong.” Anne chuckled, “Speaking of _goldstar_ and _greensleeves,_ we planned to meet up yesterday.”

“Yeah?” Cathy didn’t quite know what Anne was getting at.

“Well, why don’t we do that again, but for real this time?” She asked, “We don’t have to leave the dorm if you don’t want to. I was just thinking, even though we both already know a lot about each other online, why don’t we take the opportunity to bond in real life too? Get to know each other even more face to face.”

“Anne, that sounds great.” Cathy nodded at the suggestion, to which Anne beamed. “When?”

“I dunno, we kind of live with each other.”

“Tomorrow.” Cathy decided for them, “Tomorrow, after we’re both home from classes. Let’s order a pizza and play one of those games like twenty one questions or something.”

“Okay.” Anne agreed, and then reused her line from a few days ago via text message, “It’s a date.”

It was the second time Anne had said that to Cathy and it was the second time her heart did the involuntary backflip at the words. Funny how she was looking forward to spending an evening with Anne Boleyn - that was something she would never have expected of herself before today.

Yet it had happened. Turned out she had already met _greensleeves_ some months ago when she crashed into their shared dorm room two hours late. Turned out her nightmare roommate wasn’t as hellish as she thought. Life was full of plot twists, Cathy supposed.

Some were just better than others.


	5. Chapter Five

After talking it through on Monday, both Anne and Cathy found that living together was not as bad as they had previously lamented in their messages to one another. Neither of the girls were jumping straight into things by trying to attach themselves to the other, they were just living how they normally would as roommates. Surprisingly, it was completely fine - an outcome that made the months of hatred before it feel pathetic.

In fact, history had been made only hours after they had talked their feelings out on the dorm sofas. On the same evening of their chat, Anne cooked for Cathy for the first time. Well, she actually just filled the kettle with enough water to make two cups of ramen instead of just one, but the gesture was there all the same. Plus, Cathy swore that, even if it was just ramen, everything tasted better if someone else made it for you.

When the next day came, both of them were off to their respective classes at a similar time. Anne waved Cathy off as she left their dorm room that afternoon, only to leave just a few minutes after her to go to her own class. The same thing was on both of their minds as they travelled to the different sides of the school, however; each other.

During their discussion on Monday, they had arranged to hang out together in person in the evening the following day, which was today. They meant it officially this time, which meant actually sitting down and hanging out like friends instead of having a nasty shock and vacating the meetup. The plan was to use the time to get to know each other even more than they already did and get used to having each other around in person considering they had spent the first few months of university actively avoiding one another’s presence. So, when both of their classes finally ended in the evening, near enough the same time, Anne and Cathy were all too eager to hurry back to their dorm and get things started.

Now they were both in their dorm, Cathy occupying one sofa whilst Anne leant over the kitchen counter and tapped through a pizza menu on her phone.

“Okay, it’s ordered.” Anne held up her phone to show Cathy the screen, which displayed a confirmation of the Domino’s Pizza order they had just made. She then put the phone down and far out of reach so she didn’t get distracted during the night and finally took the seat from across Cathy. It was a scene that mirrored the discussion from just the day before, only this time it was a lot more lighthearted and less about hating the other one.

“Now we just need to decide what icebreaker game to play.” Cathy said and hummed in thought, “Do you wanna play a normal one like twenty one questions, or mix it up a little? Like, I dunno, two truths and a lie?”

“Or, if we really wanna mix it up, we could play paranoia instead.” Anne suggested with a devilish grin.

“Anne, we are not playing a drinking game. Especially not on a Tuesday evening.” Cathy flat out refused, “Besides, paranoia is a group game. There’s only two of us.”

“Guess I didn’t think that one through enough.” Anne realised, making Cathy laugh a little, “Why don’t we just play normal twenty one questions then? Makes it easiest.”

“Good point. Okay.” Cathy agreed.

  
“You go first.” Anne sent Cathy a challenging look, but in reality she just couldn’t think of her own question to ask just yet.

“Okay.” That meant Cathy, who also had no idea what to ask, was now meant to be dealing the question.

She racked her brain for something interesting, but now, come to think of it, what on earth could she ask Anne? With all their non stop chatter online, she was already fairly certain that she knew a lot about Anne. There was barely a question she didn’t know the answer to - and, if there was a question, it was a lame one. Why else wouldn’t she know the answer already if it wasn’t significant?

But she had to ask a question, and she couldn’t just spend forever thinking about something. Anne was waiting expectantly across from her. So, even if it was mild and unambitious, Cathy asked probably the most simple question a university student could receive: “What’s your major?”

“I’m majoring in drama but I’m also taking English language.” Anne smoothly replied, but Cathy couldn’t speak again before she scolded the question, “That was the most boring thing you could have asked me.”

“Well, it’s a little hard to think of a good question when I already know a ton about you from our messages!” Cathy defended herself.

“True. I guess that’s another thing I didn’t think through.”

“What do we do then?” Cathy sighed. One question into their game and it was already failing.

“I’d say we should go out, but…” Anne stretched out and grabbed her phone once more, reading off of the screen, “The pizza is currently in the oven.”

“That’s fine, we just need to think of something else to do indoors.” Cathy said, brainstorming once more, “We could try a different question game?”

“Like what?” Anne asked, “We already tried coming up with a different game to twenty one questions earlier and couldn’t think of one.”

“Uh…” Cathy’s mind was drawing blank.

“Wait, actually, forget what I just said. I do have an idea!” Anne’s face suddenly lit up with a contagious excitement.

“What is it?” Cathy asked hopefully. Now their evening wouldn’t be spoiled, just off to a slow start.

“Twister!”   
  


That just made Cathy confused. Considering they were talking about question and icebreaker games, the last game that would have come to her mind was Twister - a game that relied on its players literally twisting themselves into awkward positions to win.

“Why Twister?”

“Well, it’s like you said; we’ve messaged so much that we already know practically everything about each other from a personality standpoint, right? We don’t need to know how to talk to each other, we’ve been doing that forever now. Us hanging out now is just to get used to having each other around physically, isn’t it? That’s just what Twister is made for.” Anne explained with a triumphant smile, believing her plan was genius.

“It’s actually a party game for kids.” Cathy commented.

“Come on, you know what I mean!” Anne exclaimed, “This is just what we need to break the… physical ice. Plus, it’s really fun.”

Anne had a point, Cathy had to admit that. Where was the worth in playing ice breaking games where they already knew each other on a personal level? The whole reason for hanging out like this was to get used to spending time with one another properly, after all. There was truth in Anne’s words, and her suggestion, albeit a little hands on, really was a quick way to get used to having each other around in person. There really was no reason for Cathy to disagree.

“Okay, okay, fine.” Cathy accepted, “But do you just have a game of Twister lying around somewhere?” From the brief glimpse she had gotten of Anne’s room when she had turned off her laptop, Cathy honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the game was buried in amongst the dunes of laundry.

“Yep.” Anne confirmed.

“Doesn’t surprise me, but why?”

“Well, imagine you’re at your friends’ dorm and all three of you are kinda drunk, and all bored, so you decide that-”

“Now I get it.” Cathy could foretell where this story was going to go.

“See.” Anne grinned at her before standing up and heading to her room to retrieve the game. She returned fairly quickly considering the mess her room was - if Cathy had been the one sent to search for the game, she would have no idea where to even start. It all just looked the same to her. Then again, Anne probably knew where everything was.

Whilst Cathy pushed one of their sofas out of the way to make room for the game, Anne laid down and spread out the mat.

“You know, it’ll be a little boring if we just play traditional Twister. We should play messy Twister instead.”

“What even is that?” Cathy asked, joining Anne at the side of the mat and looking down at the intimidating coloured dots over the floor, “How is Twister not messy enough as it is?”

“It’s where,” Anne walked away from the mat and into the kitchen area of their dorm, grabbing her glass of water she had been drinking off the counter and coming back with it, “You add something to make the mat a little more slippery; more challenging.”

Before Cathy could intervene, Anne had already tipped her glass over and had poured half of its contents over the plastic. There wasn’t much of an effect, only a puddle forming in the middle of the mat, so Anne bent to her knees and began to shake the thin layer gently so the liquid would spread out a bit more.

“Oh my God.” Cathy just said aloud as she watched.

“Relax, Cathy.” Anne reassured as she rose back up to her full height, satisfied with the water’s spread, “In other games, people have used… other things.”

Cathy did not need to hear more. “Okay, yeah, you’re right. And it’s just water, it won’t stain if it gets over the actual floor. Even if it wasn’t water, we have hard flooring.”

“Exactly.” Anne smiled at Cathy’s reasoning, “So, let’s start.”

The game started off mildly, as one would expect. For the first few rounds everything was easy; left foot to red, right foot to yellow. It was just a matter of standing there and maybe holding a stretching position whilst the other one spun. However, it didn’t take long for the pair to become tangled up within one another.

At first it was just their legs interlocking. Then Anne decided that she had to enter some weird version of the upwards facing dog position from yoga to get her left hand onto the green colour. After that, Cathy had to stretch all the way to the far end of the mat to reach her next position, which consequently meant leaning straight over Anne.

Somehow, following a few more rounds, their proximity had only increased. Their faces were just inches apart and yet neither of them could move from the position - not unless they wanted to lose the game. So they both swallowed the heart racing feeling they were getting, each of them pinning it down to all the stretching and the adrenaline of the game.

“How the fuck am I meant to reach the spinner when I’m like this?” Anne groaned, glancing up at Cathy for any suggestions. Being this close, Cathy could see details in Anne that she had never noticed before. Now she realised that her eyes were not that of pure emerald, but rather an ethereal ocean green. Barely visible unless you were close were the lightest of freckles, infrequently dotted around her face. She was beautiful. 

“You could probably just about reach it if you put all your weight onto your right wrist.” Cathy tore her eyes away from Anne before she was caught staring too much and instead assessed the situation she was in.

“Alright then. Here goes.”

Anne did as Cathy instructed, first pushing all her weight onto her right wrist and then carefully beginning to stretch to reach the spinner. After so many successful rounds, neither of the girls wanted to fall down now. That, and the fact that they were both secretly enjoying being this close to one another.

Her eyebrow furrowed in concentration and she bit her lip. With composure that levelled that of an Olympic gymnast, the tips of Anne’s fingers finally brushed over the cardboard of the spinner. Just a few more centimetres. She was about to make it, she was about to win the gold and the glory…

The sudden sound of the doorbell ripped through the moments of determination, much louder than either of them remembered it to be. Both startled by the noise, they each toppled over and thus the game of Twister was officially over. However, even though they were both adamant on continuing the game for as long as possible just seconds earlier, that wasn’t the first thought on either of their minds at what had happened. No, something more pressing had occurred; Cathy had fallen on top of Anne.

“Oh, shit!” Cathy exclaimed, mainly from their position. An apology was on the tip of her tongue, even though it wasn’t really her fault they had ended up that way. Anne, however, beat her to the chase.

“Oh my God, the water is running through my fucking shirt.” She groaned, wincing at the uncomfortable feeling. It was the perfect way to distract from what position they were currently in - with a new dilemma.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have pulled all that water over the mat then.” Cathy teased.

“Whatever!” Anne playfully rolled her eyes at her but then began to nudge, “C’mon, Cathy.”

“Oh, yeah.” Cathy realised with a profuse blush that she had not yet moved off from on top of Anne and rapidly scrambled to her feet, almost slipping on the water that was currently discomforting Anne so much as she did so. “Sorry.” She added an awkward apology to the end.

“It’s fine.” Anne laughed, shaking her head to show that she didn’t really care, “You go answer the door while I change into a new shirt.”

“Okay.” Cathy nodded and, whilst Anne walked back to her room, she opened the door to the pizza delivery guy. She quietly thanked him and pulled the cash from her pocket before taking the warm boxes from him and closing the door once more. As she laid them out over the coffee table, she noticed how there was an extra, smaller box. Trust Anne to buy the overpriced sides if she was left alone to make the order.

Speaking of her, she walked back in whilst Cathy set everything up, a triumphant look on her face as if she was proud simply for changing. That look was quickly replaced with one of longing though as she noticed that the food had arrived. Without wasting a second, she took a seat onto the sofa that hadn’t been pushed aside and pulled open the closest box, taking a bite and giving Cathy a thumbs up at the flavour.

“Wow, so much for waiting.” Cathy laughed at her roommate’s reaction, taking the seat next to her and also grabbing a slice.

“It’s just so good.” Anne dreamily sighed when her mouth was no longer full. She then looked down at the Twister mat, now a little crumpled from the incident earlier, “I guess another game of messy Twister isn’t happening?”

“Definitely not.”

“Damn.”

“We could find a film on Netflix to watch or something whilst we eat this pizza?”

“Okay, that sounds good too.”

Some scrolling the titles and a few slices consumed later, Cathy and Anne eventually settled on something that was not a movie at all, but rather a true crime documentary that looked interesting to the both of them.

Whilst these types of documentaries were usually Cathy’s favourites and tended to harbour all of her attention, this time her mind couldn’t help but linger to what had happened before; how close she and Anne had gotten. She knew there was nothing between them, but damn. Her heart still raced even at the fresh memory.

What was abundantly clear was that the game of Twister had succeeded in exactly what Anne said it would; breaking their boundaries and getting used to each other being there physically. After all, when you play a game of Twister with someone, they always tend to be a close friend. No one wants to get that closed to an estranged person.

Then there was all that already existed between them before the game; the way they spoke to each other in texts and how they could both see that in what each other said in real life too. Everything finally felt like it was only going to go up from here. Eating pizza and watching a really interesting documentary was great, but they also had each other there too. Both of them could get used to this.

Luckily, they both also had at least another hour until the end of the documentary to relish these moments spent together. So, as discreetly as possible, Cathy shuffled a little closer to Anne. Whilst they both kept their eyes on the screen, Anne did notice the gesture and returned it even more, also moving closer in Cathy’s direction so that their shoulders were touching. It was no serious contact, yet all the same their hearts ran rampant.

Yes, Cathy could definitely get used to this.


	6. Chapter Six

Things can change at alarmingly quick rates, and Cathy and Anne’s relationship was no exception to this rule. In the span of just a couple of days, they had gone from hating one another to suddenly confronting feelings of care towards each other. Embarking on a friendship after so much detest and badmouthery seemed like it was going to be a difficult feat, but it had been just a week since the pair had talked it out and things were running smoothly. In fact, it felt like nothing had even happened.

Whether or not that was a good thing was a whole other conversation in itself, but neither of them wanted to think about that. What mattered most to Anne and Cathy was the fact that they were finally getting on - and they were getting on very well. Finally, after so much feud, there was peace. No more dread to return home after classes, no more silent thoughts of anguish; just peace. That felt like enough.

Both Cathy and Anne were out of the dorm often and attending classes, so it was no surprise that they saw each other fairly regularly walking around. Whilst previously they had purposefully avoided each other or, on the odd occasion, sent a dirty look, it was now common courtesy to give a smile or a wave when they walked past each other in the halls.

For some reason, they didn’t hang out with each other around campus just yet; probably because they had their own separate friend groups. That was going to change on the occasion that they saw each other in the campus cafeteria on a Wednesday, just a week and a day after their evening spent getting to know each other.

Cathy was sitting at a table near the front entrance, accompanied by her two friends, Catalina and Jane. All three of them had a short break from classes at this time, just enough time to meet and get food, so that’s what they did. At this point, it was a Wednesday tradition.

No longer with an appetite, she used her fork to boredly push the remainder of her food around the plate whilst keeping an ear into the conversation and joining in when needed. There wasn’t much grabbing at her attention, much too tired and head full of schoolwork to be thinking of anything else, until a triad of three other girls walked in.

Anne and her two other friends, who she had learnt from conversation were named Kat and Anna, entered the cafeteria. All three of them were in the middle of what looked to be a heated discussion at a distance, but from the bright looks in their eyes and the way they twitched their lips an attempt not to smile, it became clear that whatever was the topic of their debacle was lighthearted and not serious.

Quite predictably, Anne glanced around the whole cafeteria as she walked in. Cathy had noticed that was just one of the things she did; taking in a whole room as she entered. That was what she had done at the very first meeting at the Ozone Coffee Makers, and it was a habit that she had not stopped. It was almost cute, like she was curious about something changing despite having visited many of the rooms she inspected many times before.

In this quick sweep of the hall as she walked inside, it was obvious that Anne’s eyes were eventually going to fall on Cathy. When they did, she paused, allowing Kat and Anna to walk ahead a few steps, before sending Cathy her signature grin and raising her hand in a small wave. Cathy returned the gesture, wearing a small yet polite smile of her own. Then Anne was gone just as quickly as she came, catching up once more to Kat and Anna and rejoining their conversation.

Despite the quickness of the interaction, both Jane and Catalina had picked up on it. How couldn’t they, considering Cathy had diverted all her attention to Anne? Both of them looked at her with expressions of shock and confusion.

“What was that?” Catalina asked first.

Cathy should have seen this coming before she reciprocated the gesture, but she had been too caught up in the moment with Anne to calculate what would happen next. Of course Catalina and Jane would be confused; as far as they knew, she and Anne were still at each other’s throats. Yes, it had been a week and Cathy still had yet to tell her best friends about her reconciliation with her roommate.

“What was what?” Cathy asked, going back to playing with her fork and shrugging. She really didn’t want to make it that big of a deal, but she couldn’t blame them for being a little taken aback by it. If she was in their position, she was sure she would be too. In fact, she still had some lingering amazement at how they had so quickly dissolved their drama into friendship.

“Since when were you two suddenly on good terms?” Jane continued, the tone of her voice trying to mask how obvious she thought the question was being in an effort to be polite.

“Oh, a few days ago.” Cathy responded simply.

“And you didn’t think to tell us?” Catalina wore an expression of personal offence, though Cathy didn’t fret. She knew her well enough to know it was a joke.

“It wasn’t that big of a deal.” Cathy attempted to explain herself, but the two sets of eyes staring at her told her that it was very much a big deal, “We just sat and talked it out. Like mature, university aged adults… because we are mature, university aged adults. Yeah.”  
  


“Cathy, this is the same girl you’ve been talking shit about since the very first day we got here. This is a big deal!” Catalina insisted, to which Jane nodded furiously in agreement.

“Okay, okay.” Cathy rolled her eyes impishly. She couldn’t win with these two - especially not when they did have a point, “Well, me and Anne are, like, friends now. We’re getting along. That’s it.”

“I never thought I’d see the day.” Jane dramatically stated, holding a hand on her heart for extra effect. Whilst it earned a lighthearted snicker from Catalina, Cathy just rolled her eyes even more.

“How did you even start talking?” Catalina continued to ask, skeptical about this sudden one eighty in behaviour, “Why now, all of a sudden?”

“I don’t know.” Cathy shrugged, “Just happened.”

That was a flat out lie. Although Cathy hated to lie to her friends, she also didn’t want them to know about the existence of her secret side account. That account was, after all, a private zone where she could escape reality from. Sure, Anne knew about it now, but they were both in the same boat so that didn’t really matter.

Even if she didn’t mind them knowing about her _goldstar_ identity, she did mind them knowing about the whole backstory with _greensleeves_. Just imagining all of the teasing that would ensue after she told them that immediately put Cathy off of the idea; she had already scolded herself enough for being so oblivious, she didn’t need her two best friends to join in.

Plus, was Anne open about her side account, or did she also own it with confidentiality? What if she accidentally allowed for an invasion of Anne’s privacy by sharing the story? For these reasons, Cathy was convinced she could not tell anyone about what had happened between them, other than the fact that they had sat and talked. At least not yet.

Hopefully, Anne felt the same way. Briefly, she wondered whether or not Anne had told Kat and Anna about them being friends and, if so, about the whole Tumblr fiasco. That was just a passing thought though, because as she focused back to the present, all she could focus on was Catalina’s suspicious look at her response.

_Please don’t question it_ , Cathy thought to herself.

Luckily, Catalina didn’t. If she was alone, Cathy would have sighed in relief but right now she didn’t dare - she couldn’t afford to make herself look even more suspicious. Why she was getting so worked up over it she didn’t know, but Cathy just knew that she couldn’t let anyone else know the truth just yet. For now, she liked it being hers and Anne’s little secret. Unless Anne had gone and told other people. Then that aspiration was out the window.

Unsurprisingly, Jane picked up the conversation again, and her next suggestion should have been predicted by both the other girls at the table, “Well, if you two are friends now, why don’t we all hang out together at mine and Lina’s? Ooh, you can invite her two friends, as well!”

“She can?” Catalina looked over at Jane, only to receive a hardened look. That was all it took, “You can!”

Chuckling at her friends’ antics, Cathy just nodded, “Okay, if you guys want me to, I’ll ask her and her friends.”

“Well, it’s more what Jane wants-”

“Lina!”

“You know I’m just kidding.” Catalina smiled, shaking her head, “It’d be nice to meet new people.”

Cathy just laughed even more at the interaction, shaking her head as she picked up her bottle of water from the table. With the invite out in the open and taken, the trio finally moved onto another subject to spend the rest of their class break discussing.

At the back of her mind, however, Cathy contemplated how good Jane’s idea actually was. It did sound nice to have all three of her friends spending time together at once, and she had grown a little curious to meet Kat and Anna after all the stories Anne had told her - both as _greensleeves_ and as herself. No, Jane’s idea wasn’t bad at all.

Before she knew it, Cathy’s next class was fastly approaching and she had to make her leave. Bidding goodbye to her friends, she dropped her bottle of water back into her bag and walked out the cafeteria, in the direction of her next classroom. Unbeknownst to her, a pair of sea green eyes from the corner of the room were watching all the way.

“Ugh, my class starts in ten minutes.” Kat groaned.

“C’mon, Kat.” Anna slung her arm over Kat’s shoulders, “It’s music, right? That’s your favourite class.”

“It is, but still…” She lamented, resting her head in the crook of Anna’s neck, “You guys are lucky, your classes are done for today. You can just go back to the dorms.”

“If you want, I’ll come to your class with you. Or at least try to come in.” Anna offered, to which Kat’s eyes lit up.

“Really?”

“Yeah, really. You were allowed to come sit with me that one time, remember?” Anna pointed out, “And I’m sure Anne wouldn’t mind making the walk back to the dorm blocks alone. Right, Anne?”

“Huh?” At the sound of her name, Anne snapped out of her daze, her eyes jerking away from the doorway that Cathy Parr had just exited from and instead drifting to face Anna, “Say that again?”

“I asked if you’re fine with me going to Kat’s class.” Anna repeated, “You keep zoning out today, are you okay?”

_Yes, Anna, I’m perfectly fine, I just keep noticing my roommate in places I didn’t before and can’t take my eyes off of her. The joy of making new friends! Even though this has never happened when I’ve made a new friend before,_ Anne thought. But she couldn’t really say that.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Just stayed up a little late last night.” Anne made up an excuse; one that actually made sense considering Cathy’s old habit to furiously type until the earliest hours of the morning. She quickly continued, “And yeah, obviously that’s fine. The dorm building is only, like, a two minute walk from here.”

“Great.” Anna grinned before turning to Kat, “See?”

From there, they spent the remaining five minutes as a three before all getting up and leaving the cafeteria, allowing another trio of students to take their table. They departed at the entrance of the university building; Kat and Anna making their way toward the music corridor whilst Anne left the building and started the short journey back to the dorms.

When she arrived back, the dorm room was empty. Anne already knew from previous observation that Cathy still had one more class, which she was probably in right now, before she could also come back, but it was still a little disappointing nonetheless. It was funny how much the tide had turned - just a few weeks ago she would have rejoiced in returning to an empty apartment.

For a while, she pondered what she should do with this free hour. Kat, Anna and Cathy were all busy in their respective classes. She could always talk to another friend, or just laze around with YouTube or Netflix, but Anne decided to seize the hour and try to be productive with it. In other words, she was going to study.

Fishing around her room for the required books, Anne eventually gathered everything she needed and returned to the lounge. It might not be the ideal place to set up and study, but it was certainly more comfortable. When she was ready, she flicked open the material she needed and got lost in a cycle of reading, labelling and annotating.

Countless pages turned later, Anne didn’t even realise how much time had passed until the dorm room door suddenly swung open and in walked her roommate, Cathy.

“Hey, Anne.” Cathy hummed at the sight of her roommate on the sofa. As usual, she made a beeline toward the kitchen area and, as if from muscle memory, took the kettle from its perch.

In response, Anne simply hummed a small greeting. Her eyes didn’t leave the page. There was only half a page of this chapter left, and she was determined to finish what she had started.

Whilst she focused, Cathy finally turned around from the kettle when the water was on boil to see what Anne was doing. Initially, Cathy was slightly shocked that it was studying. Not that she doubted Anne worked hard, but because neither of them had used the lounge as a study space before - they were used to avoiding each other and so holed up in their rooms for any activities that didn’t require the lounge.

It was a nice sight, though. There was something appealing in Anne’s look of concentration. Maybe it was the thoughtful look on her face or the way she scrunched her nose. The way she just barely bit down on her lip or the furrow of her eyebrows. Maybe a mixture of all four of the things. Probably. Either way, Cathy liked it.

Just as Cathy’s coffee was finished brewing and she sat down on the sofa across from Anne so as not to disturb her, Anne actually closed the book and placed it back down, sighing with relief.

“Finally.” Anne put down the pen next, stretching out her arms and wriggling her fingers as if to return feeling to them, “That chapter felt like it was going on forever.”

“Try English literature, then we’ll talk.” Cathy joked, a challenging gleam in her eye.

“I will drop my major and take that instead just to prove you wrong.” Anne warned, returning the look.

“Suit yourself.”

They both laughed and a comfortable silence fell over them both as each of them relaxed - Cathy after just getting home from her classes and Anne after just finishing an hour’s burst of studying. Eventually, as Cathy’s mind began to wander elsewhere about her day, she recalled the conversation she shared with Jane and Catalina in the cafeteria.

“Hey, Anne?”

“Yeah?”

“Okay, so, you know my friends?”

“Blonde sweet looking one and tall scary one.” Anne nodded.

It took Cathy a little while to come down from laughing at that comment, “Okay, first of all, don’t call them that to their face. But, basically, they saw us in the cafeteria today and asked if you wanna hang out with us at their dorm. Probably this Saturday, that’s when we normally just chill out around there.” Cathy explained, “You can bring Kat and Anna too, and you don’t have to come if you don’t want to, but-”

Why was Cathy panicking? She wasn’t even the one who extended the invitation, merely acting as the messenger. Luckily, Anne cut through her words before she could create a storm.

“Yeah, that sounds fun.” Anne nodded simply, accepting the invitation, “I’ll definitely come. Let me text Kat and Anna now and see if they wanna come too, if they’re invited.”

Anne reached over and grabbed her phone from the table, which she had put there face down in the hope that it wouldn’t distract her whilst she studied. If Cathy was back from her class now, both of them should be back from Kat’s class by now too.

However, as she pulled up the group chat between the three of them, she realised one thing; she had yet to tell Kat and Anna that she had actually made up with Cathy. This was for basically the same reasons as Cathy. Her _greensleeves_ account was a private place and she didn’t want to be scolded for being stupid and not realising _goldstar_ and Cathy Parr were the same person in the first place; there was already a running joke that she lacked a brain cell.

Deciding that she didn’t need to tell the whole backstory for them to know that she and Cathy were now friends, Anne finally opened the group chat and sent a message.

**_To: kitkat + anna_ **

**_HELLO_ **

**_From: kitkat_ **

**_hi!!_ **

**_From: anna_ **

**_what do you want_ **

**_From: kitkat_ **

**_OMG anna_ **

**_To: kitkat + anna_ **

**_wow rude_ **

**_anyways so basically_ **

**_my roommate cathy and i are no longer enemies_ **

**_From: kitkat_ **

**_you’re nemesises._ **

**_nemesi?_ **

**_nemeses?_ **

**_From: anna_ **

**_don’t worry take your time_ **

**_To: kitkat + anna_ **

**_AHHAHAHA_ **

**_but no we’re actually friends_ **

**_From: kitkat_ **

**_WHAT_ **

**_To: kitkat + anna_ **

**_yeah i know_ **

**_we talked it out and surprisingly she’s not an annoying bitch like i originally thought_ **

**_From: anna_ **

**_anne admitting she was wrong omg quick lemme take a screenshot_ **

**_From: kitkat_ **

**_HAHAHAHA_ **

**_To: kitkat + anna_ **

**_fuck you guys_ **

**_From: kitkat_ **

**_nooooo_ **

**_To: kitkat + anna_ **

**_okay kat ur forgiven_ **

**_From: kitkat_ **

**_what about anna_ **

**_To: kitkat + anna_ **

**_she’s on thin fucking ice_ **

**_From: anna_ **

**_i’ll take it_ **

Anne smiled at the screen, laughing as she read over the texts before moving along with what she was going to say.

**_To: kitkat + anna_ **

**_anyway_ **

**_i’m only saying because_ **

**_her friends you know the two she’s always with?_ **

**_From: kitkat_ **

**_the blonde one and the scary one_ **

**_To: kitkat + anna_ **

**_yes exactly_ **

**_well they invited us all to hang out at their dorm_ **

**_like, us, cathy and them_ **

**_as 6 of us_ **

**_it’s optional buuuuut_ **

**_do you wanna come?_ **

**_From: anna_ **

**_will there be alcohol_ **

**_To: kitkat + anna_ **

**_lmao idk_ **

**_From: anna_ **

**_can i bring alcohol_ **

**_To: kitkat + anna_ **

**_i mean it’ll be your first time meeting those people but_ **

**_knock yourself out babes_ **

**_alcohol will make the night better anyways and it’s on a saturday sooo_ **

**_but if u want i’ll ask cathy_ **

**_From: anna_ **

**_yes_ **

**_To: kitkat + anna_ **

**_okay i’ll let you know what she says_ **

**_From: anna_ **

**_okay_ **

**_but yeah i’ll come_ **

**_kit said she will too_ **

**_she’s just responding to a game of 8 ball pool right now and cannot afford to be distracted_ **

**_To: kitkat + anna_ **

**_GET EM KITTY_ **

**_From: anna_ **

**_it’s your game_ **

**_To: kitkat + anna_ **

**_oh_ **

**_well anYWAYS-_ **

**_From: anna_ **

**_AHAHAHA_ **

**_To: kitkat + anna_ **

**_HAHAH_ **

**_but seriously anyways_ **

**_i’m gonna make like my fifth cup of ramen this week lol_ **

**_From: anna_ **

**_oki_ **

**_cya later_ **

**_To: kitkat + anna_ **

**_bye talk later xo_ **

Anne exited the app and stood up, a smile on her face because she now had new and exciting plans to look forward to.

“They said they’d come.” Anne informed Cathy, who in turn also looked quite pleased with the response.

The smile didn’t leave Anne’s face. Not as she walked to the counter, not as she refilled the kettle and not as she ripped the top of the noodle pot off. It did, however, get wiped clean at the next notification she was delivered, which she noticed when she checked her phone whilst she waited for the kettle to boil.

**_[8 BALL POOL]: You lost!_ **

Well, not every day could be perfect. But that was okay.


	7. Chapter Seven

“And now we wait.” Anne announced, throwing herself back onto the lounging sofa and watching the clock with an impatient sigh.

“I’m sure they won’t be that long.” Cathy reassured, taking the seat next to Anne.

It was Saturday, and, just as it had been planned a few days prior, Kat, Anna, Cathy and Anne were all due to be going around to Catalina and Jane’s dorm room. The day had arrived fairly quickly after planning it so recently as far as Cathy was concerned, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Sure, she was a little nervous about making a good impression on Anne’s friends, but she wasn’t going to let that cloud her thoughts and ruin what was going to be a good night.

However, even with that thought process in mind, there was still one remaining worry rooted at the back of Cathy’s mind. One that, now she had been given the perfect window of opportunity to bring it up, she was hoping to dissolve by talking about it to Anne.

“I need to ask you something.” Cathy suddenly spoke up, perking Anne’s attention as her incredible sea green eyes drifted from the front door and to her as she talked. God, Cathy really needed to stop paying so much attention to the tiny details of Anne’s appearance.

“Yeah?” Anne raised a curious eyebrow.

“So, about meeting Jane and Lina...” Cathy began, a little embarrassed for her next request, “Is it okay if you don’t mention how we, like, became friends, on Tumblr and everything? They don’t actually know I have a Tumblr account.”

“Oh, sure, that’s fine. Kat and Anna don’t know I have an account either, so your secret is safe with me. As long as mine is with you.” She grinned reassuringly at Cathy, putting her thumbs up for effect.

“I won’t tell a soul.” Cathy made a crossing emotion across her heart to continue on with the dramatic effect, imitating the action of throwing away a key.

“Good.” Anne gave her a smirk and yet there was only gratefulness in her eyes. Another thing Cathy loved about Anne Boleyn; she swore there were thousands of different dimensions to her roommate, and, sometimes, multiple came out at once. It was endearing. Before either of the women could continue the conversation, however, there was a hurried knock at the door that signified the arrival of the couple they had been waiting for; Kat and Anna.

“I’ll get it.” Anne was up on her feet, excitedly hurrying to the door to greet her two best friends. This gave Cathy only seconds to prepare herself for the new people for the final time, having been too caught in the tiny conversation with Anne to focus on what her first impression was going to be like. She turned to face the door and stood up from her seat, walking to stand in view of the doorway so the new arrivals could see her when the door opened.

As soon as the door opened, Anne was practically tackled by a blur of pink darting inside and launching into a hug immediately. From what Cathy had been told, she already knew that that one was Kat, which left Anna. Whilst those two balanced themselves after nearly toppling over from the force of the embrace, Anna invited herself inside and walked straight towards Cathy.

“Hey, I’m Anna.” She introduced herself, extending one of her hands as a typical polite courtesy even though she didn’t look like the type to do such. The other was holding a bag. Her voice and posture were filled with confidence, like this girl knew exactly what her worth was; and it was a lot. Despite this, she still managed to uphold a sense of welcoming energy in the attitude that radiated off of her. A kind smile was on her lips, her gesture an invitation to be friends.

“Cathy.” Cathy responded shortly, scrambling to take Anna’s hand and briefly shaking it. She was always doubting herself in social interactions like these, constantly hyper aware of the fact that everything she did counted. Around new people, Cathy had a tendency to become a bag of nerves. Yet, at the same time, Anne was just a few feet away and, soon, they would be upstairs with her own two best friends. She certainly wasn’t alone. She could do this. So, she continued to row the conversation, “Feels weird to finally meet you in person after hearing so much about you.”

“Better be all good things.” Anna joked, a grin on her face, “But with Anne, you never know. I’ve heard a lot of things about you too.”

“I can’t imagine they’re all good things at all.” Cathy lightly laughed. If only Anna knew that Cathy had heard pretty much everything that Anne had had to say about her.

“Glad I’m not the bearer of bad news then.” Then Anna looked across at the cousins to see if they were done with their mini reunion. They were not. “Sorry about them, they’re really affectionate sometimes.”

“You don’t say.” Cathy raised her eyebrows sarcastically, winning a laugh from Anna. That was good, right?

“Kit, Anne, c’mere.” Anna finally called out to them, causing both cousins to look away from each other and in her direction. It was as if Kat had forgotten that she was here to meet Cathy as well because she raised her eyebrows before approaching them both speedily.

“Hi, I’m Kat, or Kitty, or Kit.” She introduced herself as Anna slung an arm over her shoulder. So many names for one person - Cathy had to refrain from commenting on it.

“I’m Cathy.” Cathy introduced herself for the second time, smiling at Kat welcomingly. 

Although she tried to avoid it, Cathy’s eyes kept drifting towards Anna’s protective arm hanging over Kat’s frame. Her gazes weren’t those of judgement but rather those of longing; there was another person in the room, after all. If Kat and Anna were doing that, couldn’t she and Anne hold each other too? That was a thought she soon perished as Cathy scolded herself for being clingy, pinning her gravitation towards Anne on her nerves of meeting new people. That had to be it. Right?

Before she could dwell on that for too long though, the girl she was thinking about crashed her train of thoughts by joining the conversation. Having strolled to the fridge whilst the others talked, Anne loudly commented, “I’m kinda surprised they said we can bring alcohol.” As she spoke, she took some spirit cans out and began to stack them on the counter.

“I’m not.” Anna shrugged nonchalantly, raising up the bag she was holding just enough to reveal the top of a bottle in there, “You can put those in here if you want.”

“Yeah, what’s so shocking about it?” Cathy questioned, watching the pair as they placed the cans into the bag with the utmost care. It was an almost comical sight.

“Dunno. Just didn’t see them as that type.”

This elicited a chuckle and a shake of the head from Cathy, which in turn caused a proud look to appear in Anne’s eyes. Not that Cathy noticed that though.

“You’ve made a lot of prejudgements before even meeting them, haven’t you?” Cathy asked before glancing at the clock, “Speaking of, should we get going?”

All three other girls agreed to that and, drinks bag in hand, left Anne and Cathy’s dorm room. The walk to Jane and Catalina’s was a quick one; both stayed on the third floor of the same dorm building as the other four girls, just above Anne and Cathy.

Having been so nervous about meeting new people previously, Cathy fell surprisingly naturally into the clockwork of the group. It felt like she wasn’t a new face at all as she easily sunk into the dynamic - whilst Anne and Anna walked and talked together, Cathy found a new friend in Kat as they discovered similar interests and eagerly discussed them. Never did Cathy expect that she would find someone as interested in world history as she was, and yet here Kat stood. Organising this evening had definitely been a good idea.

When they arrived at the door of Jane and Catalina, it was Cathy who knocked whilst Anne, Anna and Kat banded behind her in a pack of sorts. As expected, the door opened majorly quickly, and it wasn’t surprising at all for Jane to have been the one to swing it open. In fact, it wasn’t unbelievable that Jane was probably lingering by the door just so she could open it as soon as possible.

“Hey, everyone.” Jane smiled at the four girls, opening the door wider with an inviting smile. For Cathy, this was a regular procedure. However, Anne, Anna and Kat couldn’t help but feel the warmth and energy that just radiated off of the woman. Any nerves about meeting new people were definitely washed away by that point, and the four entered the dorm room.

From then on, the evening ran smoothly. Introductions were quick and easy, and before they knew it, everyone was acquainted with each other. For six girls in one dorm room, surprisingly nothing chaotic had happened. At least, not until they all finally gathered around in a circle together.

Despite there being two sofas to relax in, plus the counter seats, they sat around the university provided coffee table. On said table was the contents of the bag that Anna and Anne had filled; an assortment of spirit cans and alcohol bottles - free to help yourself to.

Glancing around the circle, Cathy noticed that everyone seemed to be getting along well. In fact, she could already see bonds being made between each newly acquainted member of the group, which was great.

“Pretty nice, huh?” Anne’s voice from beside her interrupted Cathy from her thoughts as she turned around to face her.

“Yeah.” Cathy nodded in agreement, a small smile playing her lips.

Before they could progress into a deeper conversation, however, they were cut short by the proposal of a group activity.

It was Anna who suggested it. “So, seeing as we’re all together right now, how about we do something?”

“Like what?” Kat tilted her head to the side with curiosity.

“I dunno.” Anna admitted with a shrug, “It was just a suggestion. Any ideas?”

“How about a drinking game?” Catalina coined, an impish smile on her face as she scanned the reactions of the five others. There was a duet of cheering from Anne and Anna whilst Kat simply nodded in passive and neutral agreement. However, whilst those three seemed on board with the plan, Jane and Cathy appeared to be less eager.

“What, all of us?” Jane asked, “I don’t know.”

“Come on!” Anne encouraged, “It’s a Saturday, surely you don’t have a class or anything important to do tomorrow.”

“Yeah, and you don’t have to get drunk. There’s weak stuff here too.” Anna joined Anne’s case.

“Okay, I’ll play.” Cathy finally agreed, but that still left Jane. Luckily, Catalina was able to sway her.

“You don’t have to say yes if you don’t want to.” She told Jane, turning to face the blonde woman and offering her a small yet comforting smile, “But, if you do, I promise it’ll be fun and nothing will get out of hand.”

The pair glanced at each other for a few seconds whilst Jane contemplated Catalina’s words then, finally, relented, “Oh, alright then.”

“You sure?” Catalina asked, wanting to be positive that this was what Jane wanted. She knew her roommate well enough to know that she was a people pleaser.

“I’m sure.” Jane nodded firmly and, with Catalina’s satisfaction, the conversation was quickly steered onward.

“So, what game?” Kat asked the group now that everyone was in support of the idea.

“We could always do Paranoia.” Anne proposed, sending a side glance at Cathy as she said that. Both of them thought back to their first night in together, when they had meant to play the game but were too short of people.

“Nah, we’ve played that too much.” Anna shook her head, “What about Ring of Fire?”

“We don’t have a pack of cards.” Jane pointed out, “Unless any of you brought some.”

“I don’t think it crossed any of our minds to bring playing cards to this gathering, Jane.” Cathy teased, earning a complimentary squeeze of the arm from Anne at her side. If teasing her friends got her these benefits, Cathy decided she would do it more often.

“Well, there’s six of us.” Catalina pointed out, “Why don’t we play Sixes?”

“Sixes?”

“That game with six glasses. They’re filled up randomly and labelled one to six, with one left empty. Then we all roll a dice until we each get a separate glass and have to drink what’s in there. If you get the empty glass, you choose how much you pour in yourself.” Catalina explained the rules only once for everyone to understand and everyone to be in agreement.

With that, a few minutes ensued in which the room owners grabbed what was needed; six glasses and a marker pen - the group were relying on the Siri app to roll the dice. Then Jane wrote a number on each of the glasses and arranged them neatly on the table.

“Who wants to pour the amounts first?” Catalina asked the group.

“You should do it.” Anna nudged Kat.

“Okay then, if no one else wants to do it.” Briefly, Kat looked at the others to make sure no one else wanted the job but it appeared that everyone was fine with her doing it. So, leaning forward, Kat picked up one of the less strong bottles of alcohol and began pouring random amounts into the different glasses. They were generally equal in capacity with none staggeringly empty or full, excluding the glass left empty.

“Perfect.” Catalina nodded when Kat rested the bottle back down on the table and leaned back into the circle, “Now let’s pick numbers. Siri, roll a die.”

Gradually, with little repeated numbers, each of the students were assigned a numbered glass and took it from the table.

“Ugh, this is barely anything.” Anne complained, swirling around the contents of her glass and inspecting it in the light.

“I’ll swap with you.” Cathy commented, though her own glass was only slightly more filled than Anne’s.

“Nah, barely a difference.” Anne glanced at Cathy’s glass as if considering it before looking back to her eyes, “Plus, I bet you’re a cute drunk.”

Cathy widened her eyes, not sure how to reply. She didn’t actually get the chance to, because suddenly they were all being prompted to down their drinks after Catalina, who had received the empty glass, had poured it to her desired level - halfway. It was a great out of the conversation, but Cathy couldn’t help but dislike the timing. She wasn’t sure whether or not she wanted to see how that encounter with Anne would have escalated.

Regardless, each of them winced as they swallowed and brought their glasses back down; the first few sips of alcohol were always some of the hardest to stomach, after all. Cathy squinted a little at the bitter taste but was quick to readjust to the surroundings, looking around expectantly for the next game instructions.

For some more rounds, the game continued normally. Gradually, the effects of the alcohol began to appear as each player got a little more daring when it came their turn to pour the amounts - especially the player who was dealt the empty glass. It seemed like a great icebreaker, and Cathy couldn’t tell whether it was the alcohol working or the success of the situation that was uplifting her already content mood into a more gleeful territory.

Eventually, about thirty minutes into the game which included a ten minute break later, they finally decided it was time to end the game after one certain round. It wasn’t a bitter way of ending, just a shared inclination that it was time to stop after a member of the group took on a heavy spirit wager. The lighthearted atmosphere remained all evening.

“Where’s glass number two?” Anne asked, picking up a glass only for it to not have the number she needed, “Who needs number four?”

“Me.” Anna raised her hand and then leaned over to grab the glass from Anne’s hands, looking at the contents. It was about a quarter full.

“Glass number two is here.” Cathy grabbed the glass labelled with the number two and passed it to Anne, watching carefully for her reaction when she realised what glass it was. Upon noticing that it was the empty one, her eyes glistened with an adorable excitement.

“How much are you gonna put in there?” Kat asked, looking at the unfilled glass in Anne’s hands.

“Dare you to fill it to the brim.” Anna challenged before Anne could reply with her original idea. Of course, if you gave Anne a dare, she was avid on completing it. Especially if she had already had a few drinks.

“You think that’s hard?” Anne laughed at Anna’s suggestion and then leant over to pick up a bottle of one of the stronger spirits on the table, “That’s easy. I could even do it with this stuff.”

“Do it then.” Anna responded before anyone could discourage her, and the group watched as Anne tilted the bottle and filled her glass straight to the brim with no hesitance.

“You don’t need to drink all of that if you don’t want to.” Cathy assured Anne, but the look of determination already plain set in her eyes showed that she wasn’t going to back down now.

“Nah, I’ll be fine.” She grinned at Cathy and then waited for the signal to start drinking. As soon as it came, each girl downed their glass with ease, save from Anne who not only had a lot more to drink but also a much stronger spirit.

However, she still managed to complete the challenge and, after swallowing down the bitter aftertaste of the beverage, triumphantly slammed her glass down and grinned cockily in Anna’s direction, “Told you I could!”

“I never doubted you.” Anna countered, but still jokingly clapped for Anne anyway.

After that round, it was decided as a group that it was time to stop playing the game. None of them wanted it to lose its novelty and, for the sake of Anne’s ebbing sobriety, it was time to stop.

However, even after that, they still hung around the dorm room for some time before eventually leaving. One thing Cathy noticed as the night went on was that the more the evening went on and the more the alcohol began to show its effects, the more clingy Anne got. Noticeably, to her. It was hard to ignore this fact, but Cathy kept pinning the cause down to unknowing drunkenness whenever the thought crept back into her mind.

Eventually, it was addressed how late it was beginning to get and plans to return to their respective dorm rooms were beginning to come to light. After some warm goodbyes, some of which were already including hugs and promises to talk and see each other again, the four girls who had been guests in the dorm room were now on their way back to their own rooms.

“Shit, I forgot to get their numbers.” Anna announced when they reached the first stairwell to descend to Anne and Cathy’s floor.

“I got Jane’s.” Kat offered to appease her.

“Don’t worry.” Cathy reassured, “I have both their numbers. I can forward them to you if you want.”

“Yeah, make a group chat.” Anna said with a nod of the head. “Shit, you don’t have my number. Or Kat’s.”

Cathy shook her head, “I have Anne’s, she can add you both to the conversation.”

Speaking of Anne, the girl was currently loosely holding onto Cathy on the way down, drunkenly stumbling and putting in a clear effort to not simply fall over. It was a position of support that neither Kat or Anna had been eager to take, but Cathy didn’t mind. She liked being able to help.

“Good idea.” Anna commented as they reached the bottom of the stairs and Anne and Cathy’s floor. Before departing down the next set of stairs to her own floor, she waved goodbye at Cathy and Anne, “See you both soon. Make the group chat!”

“I will.” Cathy nodded, “And I’ll see you later.”

“Bye Kit, bye Anna.” Anne looked up from her position on Cathy’s shoulder, messily waving at both her friends.

  
“See you guys.” Kat chuckled at her cousin’s behaviour.

With goodbyes done, Kat and Anna descended down the stairs even further to their own dorm room and Cathy and Anne began to walk through their floor until they reached their apartment. Immediately, Cathy brought Anne to the sofa and made her sit down before coming back with a glass of water.

“Drink this.” Cathy prompted, holding it out for Anne to take. Luckily, she didn’t argue and drank some of the water, spilling only a little as she put it down on their own table.

“Ugh, you’re so thoughtful, Cathy.” Anne complimented when she was done drinking, leaning back, “This is why I like you so much.”

“Just doing what I should do for a friend.” Cathy replied simply, though her heart raced when Anne said she liked her. God, she had to stop doing that. “Come on, let’s go to bed.”

“Okay.” Anne once again accepted and quickly got to her feet, only for Cathy to instantly grab her arms to support her. They then walked to Anne’s room where, whilst Cathy looked around their medicinal cabinet for some aspirin, Anne got dressed into her pyjamas.

“Make sure to lay on your side in case you’re sick during the night, but I doubt you will be.” Cathy advised when she returned to the room. She placed a couple of aspirins on the bedside table as well as yet another fresh glass of water, “These are for when you wake up and also if you need them in the night. If you wake up before me and need me, then just give me a shout.”

“Okay.” Anne nodded once more, watching with tired eyes as Cathy talked, “You’re caring so much for me, it’s like we’re a couple.”

“What?” Cathy froze in shock. Those were the last words she was expecting to come out of Anne’s mouth.

“Nothing, just saying that we’d make a hot ass couple.” Anne repeated as if it was nothing. Well, in her drunken state, it probably was. To Cathy, however, it was not.

“I- uh…” Cathy didn’t know how to respond, inwardly scolding herself. Anne was drunk, for God’s sake. She didn’t mean what she was saying so there was no point in getting flustered. It was probably going to be something she would laugh about in the morning if she remembered it. “Yeah.”

“So you agree?”

“Sure!” Cathy nodded with an awkward enthusiasm.

“Knew it.” Anne toothily grinned, “G’night, Cathy.”

“Ah, um, goodnight, Anne.” Cathy smiled despite the sudden dismissal of their conversation and then took a few steps back until she was out of the room, switching off the light and closing the door behind her.

Well, that was something. No matter how many times Cathy told herself it was the effects of alcohol, her heart wouldn’t stop racing as she got into her own pyjamas and tucked into bed. Anne was just a slightly drunk girl and she herself was tipsy - there was nothing really there other than mismatched thoughts and overamplified feelings. They were just friends.

Right?

No, she had to stop thinking like that. There was no room for questioning what happened without getting her hopes up. Hopes she wasn’t even sure about why she was having, because Anne was just her friend, and that’s all they ever would be.

For means of distraction, Cathy opened up an e-book she had been meaning to read for a while and read through the first few chapters. The word ‘read’ being an understatement, because she was more so skimming the pages whilst her thoughts clouded her mind and the alcohol from before jogged her concentration.

Eventually, Cathy gave in and closed her phone, pushing it under her pillow and laying down. She closed her eyes, trying to get to sleep as quickly as possible so as not to keep dwelling on her thoughts about the girl in the bedroom next door. That was a task easier said than done, but eventually, Cathy finally was able to drift off into a sleep. Not that it was very much Anne-free anyway, it seemed that even her dreams were filled with visions of her roommate.

Of course, now she was asleep, there was nothing to break up having to care for Anne when morning came anymore. Not unless she happened to wake up first. Regardless of that, however, Cathy couldn’t decide whether or not she was anticipating the morning with dread or excitement.

She guessed she would just have to cross that road when it came. Which was very, very soon.


	8. Chapter Eight

Hangover care wasn’t what Cathy was expecting to do with her Sunday morning up until the night previously, and yet she didn’t mind. That probably had something to do with the fact that she was helping Anne in particular, but she chose to believe that it was instead because it was giving her something meaningful and productive to do instead of lazing around and scrolling through her social media for something new.

“If you want to get out of bed, a shower can help.”

Currently, she was dealing with an Anne who was unenthused about spending the whole day resting up but, at the same time, in need of at least a couple more hours to charge her batteries. Add a skull pounding headache and the uncomfortable urge to be sick sitting at the top of her throat, and Anne’s mood was a whole lot worse.

“I really can’t be asked.” Anne groaned.

“Then stop complaining.” Cathy deadpanned, but not in the same way which she used to pick at Anne with. She knew better than to drag that tone back up. However, even if Anne was almost always endearing to her right now, it didn’t mean she simply stopped getting annoyed at times.

“Sorry.”

It was a trap. Even if Anne never intended it to be, it most certainly was. How could Cathy stay mad at her when she had this adorable pout and faux doleful puppy eyes? The short answer was that she couldn’t. So she didn’t.

“I’m just kidding.” Cathy made an excuse with a reassuring tone, squeezing Anne’s shoulder comfortingly, “Just consider your options a little more, yeah?”

“Okay, you’re right.” Anne admitted, “I do have one idea. Dunno if you’ll like it.”

“What is it?”

“Well, so I’m not the only one spending the day in bed alone… stay with me? Like, in bed?”

Again, Cathy was confronted with the puppy eyes from earlier, only this time filled with hope. As if she could deny this request; as if she was even considering denying this request. If Anne was pulling the wishful gaze to try and sway Cathy’s decision, she was doing it unnecessarily - Cathy didn’t need convincing if it was Anne who was asking.

Still, she tried not to appear too enthusiastic. That would just look creepy. Trying to keep the excitement locked inside her beating heart and in no way noticeable, she nodded. “Okay, fine.”

This elicited a cheer from Anne who scooted to the side, allowing more room for Cathy to get into the bed next to her. Taking place in a matter of seconds, Cathy had no time to calculate what this situation would bring until it was too late. Now she was tucked in bed, a drowsy Anne Boleyn at her side. She could hear her heart beating in her ears and silently prayed that Anne couldn’t pick up on that too.

“Do you want to watch a movie?” Anne asked after a moment’s silence, glancing at Cathy.

“Oh, yeah, sure!” Cathy quickly accepted, though not because she was in the movie-watching mood. No, rather because if Anne was distracted by the movie, she could potentially let her guard down a bit and relax more in this embrace without Anne noticing any of her suspicious behaviour. It was a perfect plan.

So, minutes later, Cathy had pulled Anne’s laptop from its place under the bed and propped it open on the mattress before them. She was sure to adjust the brightness settings on the screen and tone the white light down a bit, not wanting to disturb Anne’s headache. Then she pulled up Netflix and, after what felt like forever of mindless scrolling through titles, they both settled on one they wanted to watch.

It was some rom-com but, although her eyes were trained to the screen, Cathy was paying absolutely zero attention to the happenings of the film. Instead, her mind was filled with how coupley she felt. Even if Anne was just seeking hangover comfort, it did feel a little intimate to be tucked in bed with her with a rom-com playing.

For the duration of the movie, the pair got closer and closer until Anne’s head was resting on Cathy’s shoulder. During the final ten minutes, Cathy even dared to slide an arm around Anne and, much to her pleasant surprise, she was not shaken away. These ten minutes were bliss for Cathy - as were the whole two hours of the movie, as a matter of fact.

But all good things must come to an end, and, unfortunately, that included cuddling with Anne. When the movie’s final scene blacked out and the credits began to roll, she knew she had no excuse to keep holding that position. So, albeit unwantedly, Cathy removed her arm from its protective hold around Anne and shuffled away a few inches.

“That was a good movie.” Cathy stated simply, figuring Anne would want to discuss what they had just watched together. Of course, she hadn’t actually watched it properly. Her mind was filled with other thoughts for the whole duration - but she could still make conversation.

“Yeah, got off to a slow start though.” Anne responded, sitting up a little.

“Mhm.” Cathy hummed in agreement, “How’s your head?”

“Surprisingly better. Forgot it was even hurting.”

“That’s good!”

“Yep.” Anne popped the ‘p’ and then reached over to her bedside table to grab her phone, which she had left unchecked for quite a while. Now though, after spending the last two hours watching a movie screen, her eyes were pretty much used to the light and there was no more headache to be mindful of.

They sat in silence for a few minutes whilst Anne caught up on all that she had missed whilst offline, and then finally spoke, “Kat wants to come over here.”

“You should let her.”

“I was going to, as long as it’s okay with you. But it is, so…” With that, Anne began typing on her phone - presumably a reply to her younger cousin.

“You don’t need to ask to bring a friend over, you know? Especially not your family, either.”

“Just being mindful. You got annoyed that time I invited them over without telling you.”

“That was just a bad day in general.” Cathy frowned, “And I was just looking at something to get mad at you for. I promise it’s fine to invite who you want. Just no weirdos, okay?”

“I know, love, sorry. I didn’t mean it as spite or anything.” Anne reassured and then eyed Cathy with a teasing gaze, “Besides, you’re the one more likely to invite a weirdo than me. I don’t trust those library boys one bit.”

Of course, Cathy had a whole artillery of sarcastic insults she could have thrown back at Anne, but all of those were thrown out the window as her brain fixated on one specific part of what Anne had said. One single word, actually: _love._

Why was she behaving like this? Jane and Catalina had called her love in an endearing way so many times before, and she had shot the phrase back at them on multiple occasions too. Why, with Anne, was it different? It was just a stupid nickname, yet here she was being creepy about it.

Even if she tried, she couldn’t stop the feeling of butterflies in her stomach or the excited drumming of her heart against her ribs. There was no preventing the visions that wandered in her mind whenever she let herself ponder for too long; visions of holding hands with Anne, cuddling with Anne, kissing Anne-

Wait, what?

As soon as that thought came to mind, Cathy began to internally panic even more. She knew that, as much as she adored her presence, she needed to spend a little bit of time away from Anne to recollect her thoughts. Clearly spending two hours wrapped up in one another wasn’t the best way to get rid of her intimate thoughts.

Luckily, Cathy had already been saved by the excuse of Kat coming over. Seizing the opportunistic timing, she calmed herself as best she could on the outside and made her excuse.

“I barely even speak to the guys at the library, excuse you. Anyway, if Kat’s coming, mind if I… run to the library? I need some books.”

Anne looked at her for a moment, blinking as if confused. It only lasted for a few seconds and yet Cathy had never felt so scrutinised; so fearful that Anne could somehow tell what she was thinking about and would think she was creepy, wanting to cut ties.

Trust Cathy to overthink. “Sure, you don’t have to ask.” Anne shrugged, sitting up in the bed a little, “Make sure to stay far away from the creepy library boys.”

This joke elicited a chuckle from Cathy, calming her nerves a little. “You should look at the kids in the drama department before you judge, Annie.”

“I am one of those kids, how dare you!” She gasped in a mock offence before continuing with a little more practicality, “Anyway, Kit’s gonna be here in, like, twenty minutes. So I’m gonna go do what you told me to do two hours ago and take a shower.”

“Pretty good idea, makes sense that it was mine.”

“Nah, it’s just one of your good ideas in a million of your bad ones.”

“You can talk!”

Both girls laughed as Anne took some clean clothes from her wardrobe and laid them out neatly over her bed for when she was out of the shower - perhaps the only neat part about her room. When she was done, they both walked out of her room and then parted ways; Anne to the bathroom and Cathy to the living room.

“See you when I’m out the shower!”

“See you then.”

Then the door closed, and Anne was alone with her thoughts. Her mind spiralled as she stepped under the hot shower stream, the water working wonders to wash away the lingering grogginess from the morning’s hangover - just as Cathy had said it would.

The clean water felt like no match to the real cure of her hangover though. No, what had actually uplifted her spirits enough to coax her out of bed and let people over was none other than the two hours spent in Cathy’s arms. As much as she didn’t like to be clingy, there was something different about Cathy’s presence that she couldn’t quite pin down and it only made her want to spend more time with her roommate to figure it out.

That was why she was also spending a lot of time simply thinking about her roommate to try and piece things together. They were recurring and frankly involuntary thoughts, but Anne didn’t mind. In fact, they were quite enjoyable - to imagine spending time with Cathy and then be able to live that out considering they were roommates.

She couldn’t live out every single scenario she had dreamt up, of course. Some were just wild alternative universes that her brain had made whilst she was asleep and dreaming, whilst others were just plain intimate.

Well, in all fairness, she had tapped a little into the intimacy side of her daydreams just this morning by convincing Cathy to spend time in bed with her, but she knew that that was all she could do. Anne couldn’t escalate further than that without coming off as weird or creepy. She could ask to ‘platonically’ cuddle but she couldn’t ask to ‘platonically’ kiss or make out.

And she was doing it again. Thinking way too deeply about Cathy, letting her mind drift off to the realms of kissing and making out; a gutter that her mind’s eye should not have been envisioning, and yet it was. Shaking her head, she tried to think of something else, yet her roommate just stuck in mind.

What was her roommate doing right now? That felt like a good distraction from the otherwise scandalous visions racking around her brain. Although Anne had no way of knowing this, since she had gotten into the shower, Cathy had taken the sofa and begun texting one of her best friends.

**_To: Lina_ **

**_So I told Anne I was going to go to the library but I just remembered that it’s closed today for the computer repairs_ **

**_From: Lina_ **

**_Why don’t you just go tomorrow then?_ **

**_To: Lina_ **

**_I just need to leave my dorm right now_ **

**_For headspace or some shit_ **

**_And the library was my first thought because it’s usually quiet and not busy but it’s closed and now I can’t think of anywhere else_ **

**_From: Lina_ **

**_Cathy_ **

**_You are texting your best friend who’s dorm room is just on the floor above yours_ **

**_If you want to, you can come over to mine. I won’t bother you about whatever’s going on, but you know I’m always here for you, right?_ **

**_To: Lina_ **

**_Thank you so much_ **

**_I do know, thank you_ **

**_But will Jane be okay with me just coming over?_ **

**_From: Lina_ **

**_Jane isn’t in right now, one of her classes needs emergency course work or something. She left the room this morning in a hurry_ **

**_Good thing she didn’t drink last night lol_ **

**_To: Lina_ **

**_Yeah ahahah_ **

**_Okay, can I come up now or in a little bit?_ **

**_From: Lina_ **

**_Right now is fine_ **

**_I’ll leave the door open just make sure to close it properly when you get in_ **

**_To: Lina_ **

**_Will do_ **

**_Thank you so much_ **

**_From: Lina_ **

**_No problem, but there’s no need to thank me_ **

**_:)_ **

With that, Cathy locked her phone and walked to the door, kicking her shoes on. She grabbed her keys and then left the dorm, not bothering to double check that she had everything; she was only going upstairs, after all. There was a little bit of guilt in her gut that she didn’t wait until after Anne got out of the shower to leave, but she supposed that her roommate wouldn’t really mind.

(That was the wrong assumption, but it wasn’t like Cathy would ever find out about Anne’s dismay. Her roommate supposed that the thought of Cathy would have to suffice until the real person returned to the room.)

When she arrived at Catalina’s dorm, she simply walked right in as she was told to via text a few minutes earlier. Inside was Catalina, sat up on the sofa; the TV was paused and a smoothie in hand.

“Hey.” Cathy waved as she entered and shut the door firmly behind her like instructed before sitting on the sofa next to Catalina.

“Hi.” Catalina smiled, putting her glass down on the coffee table and glancing over at Cathy, “I know I said I wouldn’t bother you about it when you got here, but I’m gonna ask again. Is there anything at all you want to talk about?”

Usually, Cathy was good at putting up a front. She didn’t like to talk much about her feelings and, when she did, it was most often to _greensleeves_ , given the sense of security and anonymity that she had back then. In this scenario though, she couldn’t exactly talk to _greensleeves_ considering she was Anne Boleyn and her current state of mind was resting on Anne Boleyn.

That meant her next choice was Catalina. Even if she wasn’t eager to spill her turmoil, she felt like she needed to get it out somewhere, and Catalina was her best friend from the very beginning. Plus she was there offering at that very moment. She was the perfect person to turn to at the time.

So, taking a deep breath, Cathy began.

“I don’t know. It feels stupid and embarassing.”

“Nothing that’s bothering you is stupid. Your feelings are valid, Cathy, and I would never judge you for them.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

“Then…” She took a moment to think about what she should say and how she would word things, “It’s about Anne. I don’t know, but whenever I’m with her I feel so… so different, and whenever I’m not with her I’m thinking about her. And I know I shouldn’t be thinking like this, she’s my friend and that’s weird, I just can’t stop and it’s making me feel so guilty. That’s why I needed away from the dorm room for a bit. I just need to clear my head, I think.”

There was a moment of silence in which Catalina processed Cathy’s words, “You want me to be honest with you, right?”

“Yeah.” Cathy nodded, albeit uneasily. She feared the worst; that Catalina might call her a creep or go and tell Anne what she had just confessed.

“I don’t know how to put this without sounding overly blunt, but it sounds like you like Anne.”

If Cathy’s rambling hadn’t just made that fact obvious enough, the way she reacted certainly did. Her face flushed a deep pink and her instinct was to sink into her hoodie, as if to hide away from the statement. But she couldn’t. Not now it was out in the open, not with Catalina looking at her right now and waiting for the response.

“I-I don’t know if I do.” Cathy explained, “I mean, up until a little while ago, I literally hated her guts. It just feels so quick for feelings to just have caught on and, I don’t know, it makes me feel stupid or clingy or creepy. But, at the same time, something else happened before this all that I don’t know if I can say or not and that makes everything all confusing too because I keep thinking about that as well. And I really don’t want to like her, I don’t even know if I do like her, but… I don’t know.”

“Shush, it’s alright.” Catalina noted how nervous Cathy’s hurried speech was getting and scooted a little bit closer, putting a supportive hand on her knee in an effort to calm her down, “First of all, it’s not stupid for you to have feelings, Cathy. You can’t control them and everyone gets feelings at different paces. You’re not being weird. I won’t pressure you, but if you can tell me what happened before then I might be able to help.”

“Do you promise not to tell Anne I told you?”

“I promise.”

Thus, Catalina was informed of the story of _goldstar_ and _greensleeves_ , right from the very beginning. She was told in detail of how they realised they lived in the same town to how they arranged to meet up, and then what happened when they met up and realised they were each other.

After explaining everything, Cathy felt a weight lifted from her shoulders, but that was only replaced by fear of how Catalina would react. Mockery at not realising sooner? Laughter at her obliviousness? Neither of these anxieties came true though, because Catalina simply looked understanding and accepting of the story she had been told.

  
“Okay.” Catalina spoke aloud as she thought about everything Cathy had just spilled to her, “Then that makes your feelings not rushed at all, doesn’t it? You were already talking to her for months before, enough time to get used to her personality. Then you found out it was Anne, so you got used to her in real life too. Cathy, you haven’t rushed into your feelings at all here.”

“Still, even if I haven’t, I know she doesn’t look at me the same way. She won’t ever.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I don’t know. I mean, she did call me hot in a text once, but she didn’t know she was speaking to me, and I’m sure it was just a one off or something. I’m sure she doesn’t like me anymore than what we already have; friendship. Plus, we’re both girls.”

“Have you ever met a straight girl on Tumblr?”

“...No.”

“Exactly.”

They both laughed aloud at this and, for a while, Cathy just savoured the moment. On one hand her heart was racing and she was still a little shaky; she had just come out to her best friend, plus told her about her feelings that she had been trying so hard to repress. On the other hand, Catalina had been kind and understanding, allowing her to unload a weight that was on her shoulders for far too long with zero judgement.

Maybe she shouldn’t have been holding this in for so long.

“Anyway,” Catalina spoke again, “I promise you, Cathy, it’s okay to have feelings, even if it’s for a girl and even if that girl is your roommate. You haven’t rushed into this, either. You’re fine, okay?”

“Okay.” Cathy nodded, allowing her own highly stacked doubts to be knocked down by Catalina’s words, “Then… I-I like Anne Boleyn, I guess.”

That was something she had known inside all along, but confronting it out loud and in the open was something new entirely. It was daunting and intimidating and yet it was the truth, which somehow made it feel right despite the anxiety that surrounded it.

They sat in the wake of the words for a little bit before Cathy spoke again, “What do you think I should do?”

“What do you mean?”

“With Anne. Like, getting over her.”

“Getting over her?” Catalina shook her head, “You should pursue her, Cathy. If you want this, you need to go after it.”

“I don’t know if I can. She won’t like me that way.”

“How do you know that?” There was a silence, “See? You don’t know, and you can’t know until you go down that path. I’m not saying go back to your dorm right now and confess to her, but I am suggesting that you keep testing the waters. After all, she already seems to like you as a person, and apparently she thinks you’re hot too.”

Cathy blushed at that. Catalina gave her a playful grin and continued.

“What’s to say that can’t build into something more if you try? Plus, we all saw how she acted literally last night.”

“So she was being clingy and it wasn’t just me being hopeful.”

“Oh, she was definitely being clingy.” Catalina nodded, “Seriously, Cathy, I think you have a real shot here. You just need to keep on doing whatever you’ve been doing, and if Anne doesn’t like you back then she’s a fool. But I doubt that’ll happen, not with everything.”

“You really think so? Like, you’re not just saying that to be nice?”

“I think so, Cathy. Besides, with me as your wingwoman, you’re practically guaranteed success.”

Catalina flashed a jokingly cocky smirk but Cathy didn’t even care. Overwhelmed with the support and encouragement, she flung herself at Catalina, who quickly opened her arms to allow the hug. The pair stayed like that for a few minutes, Cathy repeatedly mumbling thank yous whilst Catalina just shook them off, insisting it was just what friends are for.

Eventually, Cathy peeled herself off of Catalina and quickly wiped her eyes with her sleeve. This was a gesture that the other girl noticed but did not question, knowing better than to say something that would make her already vulnerable friend uncomfortable.

“Can I ask one more thing?” Cathy sniffed, afraid she was being too much.

“Of course.”

“Can this stay between us? Like, no telling Jane? Or Kat and Anna, for that matter.”

“You didn’t even need to ask that, I was never intending on telling anyone about this. It’s your business to tell. Don’t worry, this will be between you and me.”

“Okay, thank you.” Cathy nodded and they sat in a comfortable silence for a moment before she glanced at the coffee table, “Can I ask you one more thing?”

“Go ahead.”

“Make me a smoothie?”

“And she’s back.” Catalina joked but stood up and headed toward the kitchen, “Sure, but only because you’re asking for a drink other than coffee.”

“Hey!”

And, with such ease, everything felt calm. Cathy had finally broken out her secret but, instead of being greeted with disgust and repulse like she had originally expected, she was instead faced with acceptance and love. She shouldn’t have assumed less from Catalina Aragon, not really.

Leaning back, Cathy allowed herself this time to relax. Sure, she would end up returning to her dorm room later that night, but for now she could just be herself with her best friend.

Besides, when she did return to her dorm, she at least had some sort of game plan now instead of blindly pining for Anne. She was going to act. And, hopefully, by the end of it, Anne Boleyn would be hers.


	9. Chapter Nine

Since coming clean to Catalina and returning home later that day to the dorm room, Cathy had been trying to heed her friend’s advice. This was a lot easier said than done considering that whenever she was around Anne her heart would involuntarily race and her mind would run wild, but she persevered all the same. Over the course of the week, Cathy had attempted to initiate situations with Anne; to invite her to spend time together, to flirt and to just genuinely seem interested - all in the hopes that Anne might eventually reciprocate her feelings. 

There were many occasions in which Cathy felt that things were stepping into an intimate, romantic realm, but at each of these times, she got too nervous to continue it onward into a confession. Nearly every single moment spent with Anne was perfect, and the risk of ruining it with rejection was one that was too big for her to take. In some way, Cathy just really wanted Anne to catch onto what she was getting at and confess first, but she knew she couldn’t rely on that hope else risk Anne never confessing at all. This was something she had to do by herself, whether she liked it or not.

However, upon further consideration about how she was even going to build her relationship with Anne close enough to a confession, Cathy realised there was something else she had to do first. She felt a little daft after grasping the fact that she had missed this step - it felt too important to just simply forget. Yet she still had, so she supposed all she could do was feel grateful to herself that she had noticed in time.

What was this missing stage that she had so shamefully forgotten? Well, Cathy considered that, if she wanted Anne to know she was interested, Anne actually needed to know that she was into girls. Which meant coming out. 

In a way, the necessity to ‘come out’ irked Cathy; part of the reason she had been grappling with who she was for so long was because of how much stigmatisation was around it. Whether she liked the idea or not didn’t matter though. With the way things ran in society, she knew she had to do it, else just be assumed straight. This was a topic she had the potential to rant about for ages, but, for the sake of what she wanted, Cathy swallowed the anger along with the budding fear of the prospect and set out on ‘coming out’ plans.

Unfortunately, ordeals like these aren’t just logic puzzles. As much as she wanted to, Cathy couldn’t just sit at her desk and write out a detailed schedule of what exactly was going to happen. Of course, she could come up with a basic outline of everything she wanted to say, but there was ultimately no way of telling how Anne was going to react. This just made the task an even harder one than before; Cathy hated walking into an unpredictable situation.

At least there were some things she knew for certain. Albeit guiltily, through a scroll through the likes and reblogs of the Tumblr account  _ greensleeves _ , she at least knew that Anne was supportive of the community. That also wasn’t to mention the joke that Catalina had made during their talk in which Cathy finally confronted her feelings. Whilst it had been a cause for laughter at the time, the essence of it rang true; how could she be sure Anne was straight?

In the midst of her (rather unsuccessful) planning, Cathy was beginning to consider just not telling Anne at all and pushing away her feelings. Before she could completely shut down her efforts, however, an epiphany came to her. Considering her discontent with the whole tradition of ‘coming out’, why should she just go along with it? It felt like a simple solution, and she felt almost like a fool for not discovering it sooner, but she figured that she could literally just slip the fact into a conversation. So that’s exactly what she set out to do.

Of course, it was intimidating. Trying to keep her cool whilst looking for windows of opportunity to simply tell Anne was a lot easier said than done. Eventually, however, after lots of texting Catalina for reassurance, a large number of self prep sessions in front of her bedroom mirror and the strong desire for her dreams about Anne to come true, she mustered the courage to do so, as soon as the next opportunity presented itself.

It did a week later. When Cathy received an email from her English professor that she had left some work in the classroom, she had groaned and complained about having to drop everything to walk across campus and get what she had left behind. In an attempt to make it more bearable, even though it was just a ten-minute walk there and back, Anne had decided to accompany her on the way.

Walking out of the dorm building and through the campus hallways, the pair eventually made it to a corridor in which a few members of the university’s equality group were lingering in. They were all gathered around a half-finished display on the wall, stapling pieces up to it and taking seemingly meaningful measurements. On further inspection, Cathy noticed what they were all working on; a board to celebrate diversity and equality, in all aspects of life and especially the university. She had heard from Jane, who often did work alongside the university’s student council, that the idea had been coined by the equality group a few weeks back. From the looks of what was going on, apparently the request had been accepted.

Whilst this was a cause for celebration as it was, Cathy also noticed it as an opportunity. The first opportunity to come after she had promised herself that she would most definitely tell Anne when a good time arose. Her heart rate began to increase and her legs began to feel a little lightweight even with just the thought of it, but she forced herself to keep walking as if everything was normal.

Halfway through the corridor. Another twenty or so steps and they would be in the next hallway and the opportunity would be gone. Well, to be fair, they would be walking through here again on the way back, but Cathy knew she couldn’t keep pushing this off. Especially if it was only for a useless five or so minutes whilst she grabbed work she left behind.

Taking a deep breath, she thought again. Her mind flickered to the first conversation with Catalina and how she had been supportive and respectful, opening her arms for Cathy with care. She also thought of all the texts that had ensued between her and her best friend since then, the messages of encouragement and reassurance that had been greatly received. For a brief moment, the liking and reblogging history of  _ greensleeves _ came to mind, and that was the thought that finally pushed Cathy to force herself out of her comfort zone.

Taking a deep breath, she looked from the group of students organising the board and then sent a slide glance to Anne, who, to Cathy’s luck, also had been looking at the process of making the display. There was a curious expression on Anne’s face as if she was trying to figure out what it was. Easing into things, Cathy decided to give her answers.

“It’s a diversity board,” Cathy explained, and Anne turned around to her curiously. “What they’re making, I mean. Jane said there’s a lot of focus on pride.”

That last part was a white lie, but it did get the conversation further to where she needed it to go.

“Oooh.” Anne nodded with realisation, putting together what she meant, “That’s good.”

This was it. Now all she had to do was say it. She wondered why her throat felt so tight and why an uncomfortable sensation of pins and needles was spreading all over her body considering she knew that Anne was supportive, but she decided to ignore it and just get on with it.

“Yeah.” Cathy agreed, before finally taking a deep breath and, upon exhaling, also let her secret go too. “It’s nice to see, especially as a member of the community.”

“That makes two of us.” Anne responded as if it was nothing.

Well, in actuality, it wasn’t too important, but for Cathy, it was everything. For starters, she had just told the second person about her sexuality, and immediately there was a weight off of her shoulders. With Anne’s casual reaction, the feeling of swelling gratitude in Cathy’s heart just doubled. If she wasn’t trying to act natural, she would have probably burst into some happy ritual dance.

What made the situation so much better, however, was what Anne’s response implied. Cathy was quick to pick up on it.

“You’re gay too?”

“Bi.” Anne corrected, turning to face Cathy, “You’re a lesbian?”

“I’m still thinking about labels, all I know is I like girls.”

“I can agree with that.”

With Anne’s words, Cathy laughed softly, but it wasn’t just the joke. No, it was the result of the combined relief and excitement all bubbling up at once, giving her the need to laugh just to alleviate it, even if only a little bit.

After that, the conversation didn’t revolve around sexuality much longer and they were quickly moving onto other subjects, but the happiness that Cathy had reaped from the tiny interaction radiated off of her for a long time afterwards. She had received a second positive response to finally being open with who she was. If that wasn’t enough, Anne had just said that she, too, wasn’t straight.

That meant that she had an even bigger chance. Still proportionately slim, yes, but Cathy was definitely going to celebrate and pounce onto the fact that her chances had increased, even if it was marginally.

Bouncing off of the confirmation that something could definitely come out of her efforts if she tried hard enough, Cathy began in her attempts to slowly build up their relationship until Anne was able to get the inkling that she liked her. By dropping hints here and there and getting more frequent with it as time passed, Cathy hoped that, by the time she did confess, Anne would at least understand or see it coming, even if she did ultimately get rejected.

Starting small until there was tension simply by being in the same room together, Anne and Cathy got gradually closer. In a short amount of time, although they were both second-guessing if each other’s actions really signified something more, both of them were making advances.

Whilst some things remained the same as they had always been, like simple discussion and chatter in which they talked about anything and everything that came to mind, there were a few key differences into how things were. In this aspect, the only differences were that Cathy was actively on the lookout to start talking to Anne, initiating conversation a lot more and that she was much more attentive to what Anne said than she was before she began her pursuit.

This was in case Anne dropped a piece of information she could use to her advantage in winning the girl over. Of course, she already knew quite a lot of information that could be used in swaying Anne; their whole chat history was still accessible just by logging into her Tumblr account. That didn’t mean she wasn’t on the prowl for new ammo though; if Cathy could figure out even more about Anne’s personal tastes and use this to achieve her desires, she most certainly would.

“Guess what?!” Anne burst excitedly into their dorm one day after going out to the town centre with Kat and Anna.

“Hm?” Cathy, who was sprawled out over the sofa with a book in hand, immediately looked up, “What is it?”

She put her book down immediately, barely even spending a second putting the bookmark in. This was an irregular occurrence for Cathy; if she was engaged in a book, it was hard to get her full attention on you unless you were telling her something important. Then again, it was Anne who had just burst into the room - she just had that effect on Cathy. Especially with Cathy’s new efforts in play.

“The fairground is coming to town!” Anne held up a brightly coloured flyer, shaking it rapidly with her electrified mood. Cathy had to squint to read the words on the poster, but they were just as Anne had said; the fair was coming to their city.

“For how long?” Cathy asked, not being able to make out the fine details underneath the bold heading of the poster.

“Two weeks, and it’s coming next month.” Anne said, sitting down on the armchair, “I love the fair. Whenever it pops up, I always have to drag someone to go with me. Only Anna goes at nighttime though, which is when it’s the best because everything’s lit up.”

For a while, Cathy listened to Anne rambling about how much she adored the fair. It was surprising; the amount she had to say about an annual two-week pop-up theme park was quite a lot, yet Cathy still hung onto every word. Even if she was disinterested in the topic, the rapid, excitement fuelled tone of Anne’s voice and the starry memories in her eyes were intoxicating. This was just indulgence for Cathy.

After some time, Anne had finally come to the end of her dramatic speech about the fairground. “God, sorry for wasting your ears listening to all that.”

“No, it’s fine. I like hearing you talk about things that make you happy.”

“Awww, Cathy.” Anne warmly smiled, causing a sense of pride to well inside of Cathy, “You’re a good listener.”

“I like listening to you.” Cathy shrugged.

Anne just shook her head as if to deflect the comment, but the warm smile on her face exploding into an even larger grin proved she liked it. “I’ll talk more then. But I’m going to get changed first because this outfit is the most uncomfortable thing I’ve ever worn.”

“Looks it.” Cathy nodded with a teasing smile before Anne jogged off to her bedroom, leaving the fairground flyer laying idly on the coffee table.

Now alone in the living room for a few minutes until Anne returned, Cathy sat up and read over the flyer in more detail. Discreetly (even though no one was watching), she took her phone and snapped a picture of the event information for later use. If Anne loved going to the fair that much, Cathy would not be opposed to taking her. Especially because she now knew everything from her favourite rides and times to go all the way down to what she liked to eat and drink there. To miss this opportunity to surprise Anne with the perfect night out was a fool’s move - a mistake that Cathy would not make.

This was just one of many instances dotted around their time spent together where Cathy would carefully listen and think about what Anne said in an effort to endear and please her when she could recall certain things from past conversations. Not only was it useful for that, but Cathy simply enjoyed paying close attention and noticing the little things in everything Anne said and did; her mannerisms that changed with her mood, the tiny habits she made when she spoke - everything.

However, even with all of her analysis, Cathy didn’t take into account one crucial thing; Anne was beginning to play what was very much the same game as she was. Being more attentive than usual, locking fragments of seemingly useless information away in case they were needed later and jumping at any and all opportunities to talk wasn’t just something Cathy alone was doing anymore. If only she realised that. Hell, if only Anne realised that too.

With each interaction they had, the closer they got. Whether it was something organised like going out for lunch at one of the cafes around the campus or something as stupid and spontaneous as sending one another a meme, they were at the stage of proximity wherein they were either with each other or thinking about each other.

Blurry the lines were becoming between friendship and relationship with each day that ensued. It felt as though they were both suspended in that awkward stage between being friends and being something more, neither of them knowing whether or not to make a move.

After having an inner debate over whether or not it was too early to do such a thing, Cathy eventually decided on the former option; the time wasn’t right yet. First, she figured she needed to turn up the heat a little more. She and Anne might be getting closer and closer as friends, but she hadn’t really obviously implied that she wanted something more.

Cathy, after careful consideration, decided it was time to test the waters and get openly interested and affectionate. This was a nervewracking decision to make, but after many pep talks from Catalina and even more reminders that she was only talking to her best friend, Cathy began to engage and initiate more risky conversation topics.

One time, when she had just left her room after drying off from the shower and getting into her pyjamas, Cathy walked in on Anne sat on the living room sofa. She was hunched over something, her hair falling to her side but not enough to block her face of utmost concentration. There were a few short moments in which Cathy simply watched and admired from the vantage point of her bedroom door, but eventually she made a few quiet steps forward to get a closer look at what Anne was doing.

In her hand was a pencil and propped up in her lap was the same sketchpad that Cathy had found left open on the Sunday night they had met in person. Whilst she couldn’t see onto the page and what Anne was drawing, she knew that, if the previous drawing she had seen was any inclination, it was going to be a masterpiece when it was finished.

“I didn’t know you were into art.” Cathy gently said, careful not to startle Anne and make her jog her linework. Knowing full well what it was like to be in the flow whilst writing, she would hate to break Anne out of it whilst she was drawing.

Anne did not jump, simply taking her pencil away from the page and looking up slightly to see Cathy. She hastily closed the page she was working on, too quickly for Cathy to even catch a glimpse of what was on there, and nodded. “I like to draw in my free time, yeah.”

“Draw what?” Cathy asked, sitting down on the spare seat.

“Whatever comes to mind.” Anne shrugged, “People, places, objects, things… I don’t really set out to draw something that much, it just happens.”

“I get that with my writing a lot. Spontaneity often leads to great results, at least for me.”

“Me too. But not everything in here is that good. They’re more just silly little doodles.”

“Annie, I’m sure whatever is in there is beautiful.” Cathy’s eyes drifted to the closed sketchbook and then back up to meet Anne’s, “Just like you.”

There was a split second in which Anne didn’t respond, and Cathy didn’t know if she was seeing things or if her cheeks really did flush a deeper shade of pink and if she actually bit down on her lip.

“I don’t think anything I’ve ever drawn in here is truly  _ beautiful _ , though.” Anne responded, “You could change that though. I have been looking for a muse for a while.”

There was another moment’s silence in which Anne’s words hung in the air, and it was Cathy’s turn to react in that subtly flustered way.

This was just one of the plenty of instances where Cathy tried flirting. She started off rocky and awkward but somehow, after a little while, the words just came naturally off her tongue when she was around Anne. It became more of just saying what she was thinking inside by the end of it, and being a writer definitely had its benefits in turning her words a little more poetic.

Taking this next big step in getting closer was daunting at the start, but, by this point, it was all perfectly normal. In fact, it even allowed for other small gestures of affection to become extremely common and even expected. Notably of the latter was the gift wars that broke out between them. 

Apparently, after Anne had cashed out on an expensive coffee make for Cathy, the gift had to be returned in the form of a new sketchbook. Anne decided to match that with a set of fountain pens, so Cathy decided to step it up a notch by scouring the web for a pair of adult-sized Heelys. Their gift choices grew from sensible to outlandish as they tried to outdo each other, but neither of them minded. They just loved to see the smile on each other’s face.

But with so much talking, riddling with flirting and the implementation of materialistic affection, it was only natural for the final phase to finally bubble up; tension.

Not necessarily a bad tension. Just one that formed when two girls were unknowingly at the brink of their crushes on one another, yet neither of them had the guts to act past what they were already doing.

One of the notable occasions of this was when Cathy offered to help Anne with a piece of her English coursework she was finding difficult. Spread out over the coffee table was Anne’s books and previous work, the duo sitting on the sofa in front of it all whilst Cathy read over it to piece together what Anne needed to do to boost her grade.

There was not a lot of learning actually going on though. No, the whole mini tutor session was much more of an excuse to get close together and ‘accidentally’ get a little hands-on. Why would Anne have gone to her teacher for help when she could take this route, sitting by Cathy’s side and having their hands brush against each other ‘by mistake’ a little too many times?

There were silent gazes into each other’s eyes that lasted a little too long to be normal for the entirety of the session. Every so often, Anne would drop her pen so Cathy would have to bend over and pick it up. And did they really have to sit this close together when they were doing their work?

The entire evening was an excuse to get close, and yet nothing more happened. Similar occurrences repeated themselves through the whole course of the month, and each time they did, Cathy could feel herself getting more and more frustrated. She was reaching the peak of her patience and the limit of her self control.

However, even with so much desperation that was only paired with incentive following the fact that they were getting so much closer, Cathy couldn’t bring herself to speak up. No matter how many text messages of encouragement Catalina sent her, no matter how many hours she spent pep-talking herself in the mirror, the weight of anxiety tied onto the task was too much.

She simply supposed that instead of telling Anne her feelings, she would take the role of instead waiting to be told by Anne. After all, Anne was always the more outspoken and up front out of the two of them. Unbeknownst to Cathy though, Anne had different ideas.

Don’t get that wrong, Anne was definitely planning on saying something to Cathy. Before she did that, however, she wanted to scope out just a little more research, just in case she had been misinterpreting everything that had happened between them both in the past few weeks. All she needed was some time alone with Cathy to begin asking her final questions before she finally confessed everything she had been feeling, and this wasn’t hard to come by considering they literally lived in the same dorm. It was on a Saturday that Anne finally decided to initiate her plan. She hadn’t woken up that morning and decided that was the day she was going to do it, but the thought had slipped into her mind during the afternoon.

Whilst Cathy was sitting on the sofa on her phone, Anne was humming to herself as she glided around the kitchen area. Having impulsively bought a bunch of baking ingredients when she last went shopping with her cousin, she was finally putting them to good use as pots and pans were scattered around the counters, a battery mess stuck to each. Both of them were chatting in the midst of their individual activities and considering they were alone and weren’t planning on going anywhere, Anne was prompted to start her questioning.

“So, Cathy, any girlfriends yet? Or boyfriends! I don’t judge.”

It was a simple question, but it was designed so Anne would finally know whether or not she should confess or not.

Cathy had not expected such a question to appear out of the blue at all. She looked startingly up from her screen and across to Anne, who didn’t seem to be paying attention at all as she focused on the contents of a mixing bowl. This was probably lucky for Cathy, because if Anne had been watching then her reaction would have been a dead giveaway.

Recollecting herself in seconds, Cathy responded coolly.

“No, I’m not seeing anyone.”

“Oh.” Anne looked up now, wanting to see Cathy’s reaction to her next question, “Are you interested in anyone then?”

Unfortunately, Cathy did not have the luck of Anne simply not paying attention to save her reaction from being read easily. Even though she tried her best not to show it, especially because she was mildly prepared now after being thrust into the situation, she couldn’t but experience a similar reaction to earlier. It certainly didn’t help that the object of her interests was asking the questions either.

“Oh my God, you do!” Anne played a grin, but inside she was quickly on the prowl. So, Cathy definitely had a crush. Everything that had been happening the past few weeks indicated that it was on her, but Anne still needed some confirmation. Hopefully, she could get that through prodding for and then observing reactions.

“I don’t know if I should say.” Cathy mumbled, dropping her phone on her lap and nervously playing with the loose threads of her shirt.

“C’mon, at least give me some clues.” Anne pleaded, “What’s their gender?”

Cathy inwardly sighed. She didn’t want to disappoint Anne but she didn’t want to lie to her either, which meant that engaging in her little game was going to be risky. Idealistically, Anne would drop it, but Cathy knew her well enough to know that, when curious, it was almost impossible to get her to stop pursuing something. Carefully considering her options in what little time she had before it became suspicious, Cathy finally decided she was just going to have to elusively play along.

“She’s a girl.”

“Okay.” Anne hummed as if in thought, “Do I know her?”

“That’s way too revealing.”

“So I  _ do  _ know her. Thanks for the tip.” Anne deviously smirked at Cathy.

“I didn’t say you did!” Cathy defended.

“You didn’t say I didn’t though, so…” Anne trailed off. On a whim, she decided to throw out some names. “I doubt it’s Jane or Lina, you seem like sisters to them both. Their relationship with each other, on the other hand…”

“Are you implying they’re into each other?”

“Wait, wait, wait, let’s not get off topic. I doubt it’s Kat or Anna either, for really obvious reasons. God, I hope it’s not them.”

“Nope.” Cathy shook her head, her heart racing with each suggestion that Anne made. Not only was she terrified that Anne was eventually going to throw herself into the pool of potential interests, but the conversation was seriously warming up the part of Cathy that was craving to just speak up about her feelings already. It was as if the chains of fearful rejection holding her back from confessing were being ripped away by the temptation only to be rebuilt again by the nervousness the game was giving her.

“Okay, good.” Anne laughed, “Uh, I’m trying to think your other friends who I know but I can’t. Well, other than…”

Oh no. Cathy’s heart sunk. Anne watched her closely.

“Me.”

Even though she knew it was coming, Cathy once again couldn’t help her reaction. To make it worse, this time was much worse than the other two. Her eyes widened, her cheeks flared and her body tensed. Inside, her mouth dried like a canyon, her heart shot to her throat and back again and her stomach lurched.

Seeing this reaction, Anne didn’t quite know how to react. Sure, she had literally been prodding for one, and this obvious confirmation should have been a cause for celebration, but she didn’t actually expect it to happen. Something like this was the most idealistic outcome, so, by default, Anne had assumed it to be the most unrealistic. Only it certainly wasn’t, because here she was. Living the moment.

Her words, coming so slyly before, were gone. All she could say was a simple reflection of her feelings inside.

“Oh.”

Of course, that one word answer gave Cathy the completely wrong idea. At a complete loss and emotions running so high that logic was completely thrown out of the window, she desperately tried to salvage the situation. Only she did this in the worst way possible, adding fuel to the fire.

“Yes, okay? It’s you, Anne. I like you like that.”

Three short sentences, all coming out as a hurried and almost frustrated sounding ramble, yet the impact they made was astronomical. Everything had come spewing out at once, in the most unplanned and unwanted way possible, and now there was no fixing it. She felt like an idiot.

There was a silence. The wake of Cathy’s words hung suspended in the air as the pair watched each other. Anne’s reaction was still one of shock, if not even greater shock than before. Immediately, Cathy’s regret for her outburst skyrocketed.

Why did she tell Anne? She didn’t like her back and she was acting way too fast. Now she had messed everything up. Cathy couldn’t bear to be in that dorm room any longer, not with Anne right there with her shocked face. Not with the shattered remnants of their now broken friendship stabbing into her. Not with her secret taking up all of the breathing room.

The breathing room. She needed to breathe. She was done for. Cathy needed to be out. She couldn’t face Anne right now. She had made a mistake.

“I-I’m sorry.” Cathy quickly apologised, shaking her head after too long of the unbearable silence. Then, before Anne could respond, she walked to the front door and left the apartment, not even bothering to grab her keys or her phone.

“Cathy, wait!” Anne had finally sprung into action, following her to the door, but by that point, it was too late. Anne’s pleads were falling on ears that weren’t listening. Whether that was by choice or because the deafening sound of her heart in her ears rendered it impossible to hear didn’t matter; Cathy wasn’t looking back around.

The situation bitterly reminded Cathy of the night Anne had stormed from the Ozone Coffee Makers, only this time she was now the one running. She wondered if Anne also found it hard to breathe that night or if she also could barely see through the tears of panic in her eyes.

Wandering aimlessly, Cathy didn’t know where she was going. She just walked to wherever her feet would take her; anywhere that was away from the dreaded sight of her spilt secret. Eventually, she would have to face the apartment and the consequences of her actions, but that time was not right now.

No, right now, Cathy needed to calm down. Scolding herself for being so reckless and even believing for a second that her feelings were going to be requited, Cathy reached the bottom of the stairwell and eventually the door out of the dorm building.

Then she simply left and disappeared, blending in as just another figure of the campus. For now, that’s all she desperately wanted to be. A person without a story; a nobody. Anyone other than Cathy Parr, the girl who had just confessed her feelings to her roommate and then fled the dorm room with regret as soon as she did.

She was done for. Anne was probably on the phone right now, chatting about what had happened to her friends. She was probably sending it around on social media, laughing about it with her followers. God, Cathy had made a huge mistake. Now she was running from that mistake.

Of course, that wasn’t confirmed. She had run from the dorm room before Anne could even answer, so maybe-

No. Wishful thinking had got her into this mess. Cathy certainly wasn’t going to allow it to ensnare her any more than it already had, else she would just continue to be a fool. Anne’s silence and shock were telling enough; whether it stemmed from disgust or pity or something else entirely - she didn’t like Cathy back. That was just something she was going to have to deal with.

But not right now. Now she just needed time alone; time away from it all in which she could prepare herself to face Anne again when she was ready.

Little did she know, her roommate was already on the search for her, racing frantically around the college to clear things up and set her feelings, which were very much requited, straight. The common saying is what one doesn’t know won’t hurt them, but, in this situation, that was far from the case.

What Cathy didn’t know was most certainly hurting her.


	10. Chapter Ten

**_To: cathy_ **

**_cathy_ **

**_wya_ **

**_?????_ **

**_cathy_ **

**_please answer me_ **

Unsure what to do since Cathy’s confession and abrupt exit, Anne had taken to frantically texting her roommate. This was for two reasons: one, she assumed that Cathy needed space and two, she literally had no way of knowing where Cathy was. For all Anne knew, she might have left the campus by now.

However, as much as Anne did respect Cathy’s need for privacy, she also couldn’t just be left hanging. Not after what Cathy had said. That’s why she was furiously typing to her roommate, trying to convince her to return back to the dorm room so they could talk it out properly.

**_To: cathy_ **

**_please come back to the dorm_ **

**_i’m not mad or anything_ **

**_or tell me where you are and i’ll come meet you???_ **

When Anne had been dreaming of confession over the past few weeks, her mind had wandered off to shy kisses and warm embrace. She had anticipated a soft exchange of affection and arranging a date. Even though that was a lot of fantasising for perfection, the last thing she expected was for Cathy to confess. And, even if she did, she didn’t expect her to flee the apartment straight after.

Not that Anne could blame her though. After all, she had been playing a little bit of a ruthless guessing game, looking back on it. Guilt heavily sat at the pit of her stomach as she considered what had just happened, wondering if she should have been gentler with the questions or just not have even asked them at all.

As much as Anne felt guilty for what she did, she couldn’t help but feel a little bit of relief that her core objective was actually complete. That tiny inkling of gratitude only made her feel much more guilty as well, but she couldn’t help it. Of course, it had all gone horribly wrong - a lot of ‘genius’ ideas did - but at least she had some idea how Cathy felt.

At least, she hoped so. She was now left suspended in nervousness and confusion - did Cathy run from fear or did she realise she didn’t feel that way after all? Was Cathy mad at her for what she had pressed on about? Where even was Cathy, was she okay?

These questions and more spiralled Anne’s mind as she desperately awaited a text back from her roommate. Five more minutes; that’s how long she would give it before going out to try and look for Cathy. She needed to settle things and hopefully, by the time she found her, Cathy would be ready to talk.

As some sort of way to try and coax Cathy into giving up her location and avoid the hassle of searching, Anne debated the final option she had. There was always simply texting Cathy and confirming that she had been feeling the same way, and there was no need to run. She had already been planning on confessing her feelings as long as she found out that they were actually reciprocated, so this should have been easy. After Cathy had made the first step, this shouldn’t have been a difficult action at all. And yet, here Anne was, fingers hovering over the keyboard with great anxiety as she pondered the decision in mind.

What did she have to lose? What was stopping her so much from simply finishing what Cathy had already started? It was all she had been hoping for and dreaming about for so long now, what she had been confidently planning to the point that she was finally starting to zone in, but here she was, in the reality of the situation and unable to type the message of reciprocation.

Who was she to be nervous when Cathy had made the real leap of faith? She had no right to be so scared, not with what Cathy had already told her, and especially not after she had provoked the situation. So, even with a mountain of nerves screaming disapproval, Anne took a deep breath and finally began typing what she had kept locked inside for this long.

**_To: cathy_ **

**_cathy_ **

**_please answer me back, i need to speak to you_ **

**_because_ **

**_i like you too_ **

**_as more than a friend_ **

**_so please, tell me where you are??_ **

**_we can talk this through_ **

With bated breath, Anne watched the message thread for some sign. Cathy had her read receipts off, so she was just nervously anticipating the three typing bubbles as some sign that Cathy had seen what she had said. Nothing came. Not a response, not a sign, not a shred of acknowledgement of the message from Cathy’s end.

Pacing around the apartment in a futile effort to calm some of her nerves, Anne’s feet took her, for whatever reason, into Cathy’s room. Perhaps it was because Cathy was playing so much on her mind, or maybe it was fate pulling her along, but it was for good reason that she did enter her bedroom because that’s when she got her answers.

Cathy wasn’t ignoring her on purpose, she simply wasn’t seeing the texts at all. Her phone laid atop her bed, discarded and not in use. When she got closer, Anne saw all the notifications from her desperate text messages trying to get her attention; all left unopened and unseen. Cathy didn’t even know that Anne was trying to reach out to her. Screw waiting for five more minutes now. Anne was quick to grab her jacket, stuffing her keys and phone into the pocket before walking out of the apartment. She needed to find Cathy and set things straight with her.

When she closed the door behind her, she instantly began to brainstorm all the possible places Cathy might have gone to. The immediate locations that popped into mind were places like the library, any of the coffee shops dotted around their town and, what seemed most likely, Catalina and Jane’s dorm room.

That’s where Anne set off on a quick march up to. Of course, there was always the possibility that Cathy had gone to none of these places and was instead somewhere else entirely, but they each felt like a good place to start. So, when she reached the door of Catalina and Jane in record speed, she did her best to gain her composure before knocking sharply.

“Oh, hi Anne!” The door swung open to reveal a confused but welcoming looking Jane, “What’s up?”

“Is Cathy here?” Anne wasted no time with politeness; she could always apologise to Jane later. Instead, she stood on her toes to peek over the dorm owner’s shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of Cathy sitting in the apartment.

“No.” Jane shook her head, raising an eyebrow, “Why? Did something happen?”

“Nothing happened.” Anne shook her head, offering what she hoped was a believable smile. It was not.

“Are you sure?” Jane asked, “I can always try to help you if something has happened.”

“No, thank you, Jane. I promise everything’s fine.”

“Who is it?” Appearing from one of the bedroom doors was Catalina Aragon, who approached to stand behind Jane’s shoulder curiously.

“It’s Anne.” Jane told her roommate, “I was just wondering if there was a problem because she came here looking for Cathy.”

“There’s not a problem.” Anne insisted, turning to face Catalina.

The pair of them shared a stare, Anne’s eyes begging Catalina’s skeptical gaze to let her go without any more suspicion. For Cathy’s and her own privacy, she couldn’t tell them what had actually happened. However, much to her luck and for reasons Anne didn’t know, it seemed like Catalina knew there was some sort of deeper context behind Anne’s knocking at their door.

Communicating without words, Catalina gave Anne a firm look of encouragement, as if it had somehow clicked to her exactly what was going on - and Anne didn’t know whether she should be happy that she was being trusted or intimidated by the prospect of Catalina’s wrath if she failed to comfort Cathy. In that moment, it was just too plain to see Catalina’s fierce protectiveness over her friend to think differently.

Then Catalina turned to her roommate, “I trust Anne. If either of them need our help, I’m sure they’ll come on their own. Especially Cathy.”

“Oh, I guess you’re right.” Jane decided after a few moments of heeding Catalina’s words. She then looked back at Anne, “I’ll text you if I see her, and please know that we’re always available for both of you.”

“Yeah, thank you.” Anne nodded quickly, turning around to make her leave and sprint down the stairwell, completely unaware of the fact she was still being watched by Catalina all the way down until she was out of sight.

“I hope they’re both alright.” Jane said when Catalina finally closed the door, sitting down on the sofa, “I mean, I know you said they’ll come to us if they need us, but I still worry.”

“And that’s okay, but try not to overthink this.” Catalina took the seat next to Jane, taking her hand, “If something was seriously amiss, we both know Cathy would have come to us by now. I’m sure they’re going to be fine. More than fine, actually.”

Jane just nodded with Catalina’s words and relaxed a little bit with her touch. The pair ended up sitting and talking for a while, but for the whole time, Catalina had a knowing feeling at the back of her mind. If what she and Cathy had talked about that day on this same sofa was any indication of what was going on between her and Anne, she was positive that they would definitely be more than fine.

Anne, however, was not as calm and confident as Catalina was. That was a given, considering that she was actually walking the shoes of the situation, scanning the halls around her for any sign of Cathy. After leaving Jane and Catalina’s doorstep, Anne had left the dorm building and was now strolling through the campus, scrutinising her environment to find Cathy.

First she made a beeline to the library, only to find that Cathy was not there either. This left her speed walking at an even quicker pace, along with an angry librarian logging her name in a conduction of behaviour book. Still, that was the least of her worries. Maybe one day she would go back to the library and cause even more of a wreck just to spite the old woman, but that was not her current priority.

No, her priority was Cathy. Her next stop was the cafeteria, seeing as it was the only place on campus that served hot drinks and anyone who knew Cathy knew about her (slightly unhealthy) coffee infatuation. When she walked in, her eyes darted around to the people waiting in line and those already seated, but none of them were Cathy.

There went all three of her first thoughts about where Cathy might be. Sighing, Anne realised she was going to need to check the whole campus - and even then, Cathy might have left the grounds and taken to wandering through the town. If only she had brought her phone.

Regardless of the tedious monotony of going through every single part of the campus, Anne did it anyway; she needed to find Cathy. She looked through each department; from the English rooms to the art studios, the auditorium to the photography dark rooms. Yet, even with all this searching, she still didn’t find her.

She must have left the campus. Anne approached the main door of the building and braced herself to step outside and look throughout the town, making a mental list of all the coffee shops she knew and where they were situated. It was raining outside, a dull and dismal drizzle that, although it was light, seemed to put even more of a downer on everything than there already was.

Unfortunately, Anne didn’t bring a coat, but she wasn’t going to waste any time running back to her dorm to get one, so she simply braced herself and walked out into the gauzy downpour. As she walked to the gate that led out of the university grounds, she barely passed the campus’ outdoor athletics facilities before realising she hadn’t checked them.

The athletics facilities just hadn’t come to mind when she searched the whole school, because that was one of the last places Anne imagined Cathy being. She had said many times before that sports weren’t really her thing - whether she was watching or playing. As such, Anne wasn’t even going to bother looking there. That was until she noticed a person.

Due to the rain, all of the people who were using the athletics equipment had packed up and gone inside; all but one. This person wasn’t doing sports though. No, they were simply sitting on one of the benches by the running track, facing away from the campus building and staring up at the slate grey sky. It was impossible to make out who it was from this distance, and the probability of it being Cathy out of every student and faculty member at the university was minimal, but Anne felt inclined to go and check anyway.

As she walked closer to the figure, they became clearer to see. Anne now noticed that they were slouched a bit, paying absolutely no mind to the increasing rate of the rain that surrounded them. It wasn’t like they were dressed for the rain either, not with their simple leggings and t-shirt. Then, as she finally got within a close proximity, she realised exactly who it was. The dark olive skin and the head of curls all the way down to simply how the figure sat spelt the identity out as clear as ever; Cathy.

Anne’s heart seized and then started racing even faster than before. Without even thinking about what she was going to say when she made her presence known, Anne raced to close the remaining distance between them both. She finally spoke.

“Cathy!”

At the sound of her name, Cathy startled out of her mind gutter of self doubt. She had significantly calmed down in the time it took for Anne to find her, but that didn’t mean she was ready to face her just yet. Apparently, however, she had run out of sweet time to prepare, because here Anne was, and there was nowhere left to hide anymore.

She shook her head, standing up and holding up her hands as if to stop Anne from coming any closer. The only thing that separated them both now was the bench that Cathy had previously been sitting on, each of them standing on either side of it. This physical barrier was nothing though, not compared to the tension and worry that swirled around them, falling from the sky and soaking them, puddling at their feet.

Before Cathy could speak up, Anne spoke again, “Cathy. I need to-”

“No, Anne.” Cathy interrupted, looking at her but not daring to meet her eye, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been so reckless. I was stupid, and I understand if you don’t want to be-”

“Cathy, let me speak. Please.”

There were a few seconds of silence before finally Cathy braved enough to look into Anne’s desperate gaze. And then, “Okay.”

“I don’t even know how to start this.” Anne spoke after an even longer amount of silence, “I just… you ran away. You didn’t even let me react or respond to what you told me.”

“I know. I know I did, because I got scared and I felt like I messed up everything we have and suddenly everything became too much and I’m sorry. But you did react. You were just silent and watching me, and I realised that I had made a mistake and felt judged so I just ran. I’m sorry.”

“I was silent because I was shocked. I didn’t know what to do, because I was just making food and teasing you— which I’m really sorry about, by the way— and then you just dropped that bombshell on me and I didn’t know how to react. It wasn’t meant to be a bad shock or judgemental, I swear.” Anne promised, and never once did she sound more sincere.

Cathy nodded, “Okay.”

“But, tell me, please. Did you mean what you said?”

There was nothing but the sound of the rain falling around them and their hearts pounding in their chests, yet never had Cathy felt so vulnerable. She couldn’t just lie to Anne now, not after everything. Not after she had spent this time searching for her and come out in this rain, and now she was getting all wet and yet she remained because she cared.

No, she owed Anne the truth. So, despite all the nerves screaming at her not to, that’s exactly what she gave.

“Yes.” Cathy said, a rush of adrenaline forcing her to maintain eye contact with Anne, “Yes, Anne, I meant it. I know I didn’t say a lot, but I meant every word. I do like you as more than a friend, and I’d love to take you out somewhere on a date, but I know and understand that that’s just wishful dreaming on my part.”

“No.” Anne shook her head, “If you just told me that, then you have a right to know this too.”

“Know what?”

“I like you too. I like you back, as so much more than a friend, and I’d also love to take you somewhere, or be taken somewhere by you. Just to do something, anything, with you, where we’re something more than friends. It’s kind of why I was bothering you about crushes, I was preparing on confessing to you myself but wanted to make sure I had a real chance and no one was in the way. I kind of fucked that up, but… yeah. And I never thought I’d be saying this to you, but you deserve to know, after everything.”

Cathy’s eyes widened as she took in Anne’s words. The blood rushed to her ears and then straight back down again, and for a second she swore she was taken to another universe before being placed back down at the running track. What Anne had just said was a scene from her dreams, and, even after working for so long for some type of reciprocation, she wasn’t prepared to hear it.

Yet, here it was. A confession. A reciprocation from Anne Boleyn. Ecstasy and disbelief hit her at once from both directions, two equal forces acting on one another and cancelling each other out - rendering Cathy simply to stare. Then, finally, she spoke again. It wasn’t a sweet declaration of love or an exclamation of happiness as one might have expected though. Rather, it was a question.

“Then why were you silent back then?”

“Because you shocked me. Like I said, it was just meant to be me finding out if I had a real chance with you and suddenly you were telling me you liked me and I didn’t know how to react. I’m not used to the people I like liking me back, so when it just happened… I don’t know. I’m sorry for reacting slowly and causing this, but I hope this makes it up.”

“No, don’t apologise. I understand.” Cathy quickly reassured, “But seriously? I mean, I trust you and know you wouldn’t lie to me, but at the same time… I just can’t believe it.”

“I’m being serious, Cathy.” Anne nodded.

“This isn’t out of pity?”

“No. Why would I do this out of pity?”

“Well, you’re you. And I’m me.”

“Meaning?”

“You’re social and confident and pretty popular around this campus. Who am I? No one even knows who I am until I’m posted on the grade rankings. When people think Cathy Parr, they just think of the girl on the top of the literacy departments, never me. They don’t even know what I look like.”

Anne frowned, Cathy’s sudden words of self deprecation tugging at her heart. She urged to step over the bench and simply hold Cathy in her arms for comfort, but didn’t know if that was appropriate yet, considering what they were talking about. So she did the next best thing and spoke.

“Cathy, listen to me right now. You might not be the most popular or renowned face around here, but what does that matter? You’re smart, you’re funny, you’re kind and honestly one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. You have so many people who love you too; Jane, Kat, Anna, and I know that Lina would drop everything for you. You might not catch everyone’s attention when you walk into a room, but you’ve certainly caught mine. For me, that’s enough.”

“You mean that?” Cathy’s eyes were glassed over.

“I mean it. If anything, you’re the one who could be shooting way higher than me.”

“How could I do any better if you’re the one I want?”

“Cathy…” Anne broke into a lopsided smile; nothing like the cocky smirks or teasing grins she gave. No, it was a real, emotion filled smile. Without a care anymore, she stepped over the bench to Cathy’s side and then gestured down onto it, “Shall we sit down?”

“It’s all wet.”

“Who gives a shit? We’re already wet.”

Anne had a point, so they both lowered themselves onto the bench and instinctively melted into each other’s hold. Anne wrapped her arms around Cathy, as if shielding her from the world around them. Cathy cocooned her head into the crook of Anne’s neck, clinging onto her waist and simply savouring the moment. Somehow, in the midst of the bitter weather and the exposure of their truths, this was the warmest they had both felt in a long time.

After a while, Cathy pulled back a little. Not out of Anne’s arms, but enough to face her again to speak and ask an imperative question. “So, what now? What are we? If we like each other, does that make us girlfriends?”

“I don’t know.” Anne shrugged, “Do you want to be? Is that too soon?”

“Maybe we should go on a date first.” Cathy suggested.

“Good idea.” Anne nodded, “Where?”

For a moment, the two sat and pondered before Cathy finally looked up at Anne, lightbulbs in her eyes, “I remember a certain someone saying she wants a nighttime fairground partner.”

“You remembered that?” Anne raised her eyebrows.

“Of course I did.” Cathy said, “So, how about it?”

“I would love that.” Anne nodded, pulling Cathy closer once more. Her heart was full of admiration and affection for this girl, who had hit the nail on the head for a perfect first date.

“Great. It’s in town soon, right?”

“Next week.”

“How about Saturday night? Just the two of us. We can get something to eat as the sun sets and then go there for nightfall?”

“That literally sounds perfect.” Anne nodded, stars in her eyes.

“It’s a date then.” Cathy smiled. Never did she ever seriously believe she would be out here, asking Anne on a date, let alone Anne accepting with such a dreamy expression. Yet here she was, in that very situation.

“Can’t wait.” And then Anne pulled Cathy back into the same embrace as earlier, both of them simply enjoying the presence and warm feeling the other one gave.

They sat there for a while, simply wrapped up in one another. Neither of them cared about the rain that was soaking through their clothes, nor did they remember the cupcakes that Anne had left burning in the oven. For the time being, they were all each other wanted and needed. They had each other with no more barriers and no more boundaries, and that was all that mattered. Everything else could come later.


	11. Chapter Eleven

Since their mutual confession on the bench by the running track, Cathy and Anne had been much more affectionate than usual. Cuddling on the sofa was becoming a default position for the pair as soon as the both of them were home and it was getting increasingly harder to keep their hands off of each other whilst outside of the dorm room. Luckily, they barely managed to keep their almost-girlfriends relationship under wraps.

None of that was to say that they were rushing into things. No, despite temptation and many opportunities, the sort of couple were refraining from being overly intimate. Aside from quick pecks to the cheek and the occasional sloppy pet to the forehead, they hadn’t actually shared their first real kiss. It was like an unspoken agreement between the two; everything super sweet was being savoured for the first date.

Counting down to the evening of that day was something they had both been secretly doing in their heads. Anne, in particular, was excited; this was something she had been wanting to do for ages now, and she was about to do it with Cathy on an official date. It was more than she could have asked for. For Cathy, she wasn’t the fondest of fairgrounds, but the thought of Anne’s adorable exhilaration on the night kept her wishing that the evening would arrive faster.

Eventually, though it felt like forever, the evening did. They had both dressed up casually considering they were just heading downtown to the fairground, and, as they had decided on the running track bench, were currently sitting in a diner as the sun set behind the city skyline. Anne chugged down the remainder of her drink, despite Cathy’s reassurances that she didn’t have to rush, and grinned across at her date.

“You must be really excited.” Cathy joked with raised eyebrows.

“Duh.” Anne admitted, her gaze drifting to the window at the darkening sky, “Should we hang around here or get the bill and get going?”

“We should get going. It’s going to get dark soon.”

It was easy to see how excited Anne was to get to the main event of their date, and Cathy didn’t want to leave her waiting for any longer than she absolutely had to. She called their server over and got the cheque, leaving behind a generous tip that probably had some correlation with her warm mood. Finally, with everything sorted, they were ready to go.

Walking hand in hand out of the diner, Anne and Cathy stepped back into the street just as the sky was beginning to darken to an ashy black colour. In this darkness, both girls could just make out the exuberant flashing lights of the fairground within distance, causing both of their hearts to race with excitement. This was it; one short walk and then two hours of fun together until closing time.

So they made the quick walk, chatting lightly between themselves about what was to come of their time at the fair until the cheery music finally came into earshot and they reached the car park outside the entrance. Cathy spared a glance at Anne, admiring the way she looked so happily up at the attractions towering and how the bright flashing lights twinkled in her eyes.

Without wasting a second, they approached the entrance gate (it was more like Anne dragging Cathy to it, but she didn’t mind). Cathy paid the entrance fee and, after being given their wristbands for free reign around the grounds, they each dashed through the gate and eagerly looked around.

A whole plethora of attractions was theirs for the choosing for the next two hours. Although they had already eaten, food stalls were dotted around, an enticing smell coming from each of them. There were also a few prize stalls here and there, as well as the loud music pounding enthusiastically in their chests. To top it all off, the lines to each of the above were minimal because most people had already been to the fair during the daytime. Coming at night was definitely a smart move on Anne’s part; not only was it proving to be practical but the vibrant energy of the place was much more appreciable at dusk.

“So, what shall we go on first?” Cathy turned to Anne, who had just finished her eye sweep across just about every ride the fairground had to offer.

“How about that one?” Anne pointed at one of the attractions and Cathy followed her gesture until her eyes landed on a literal blur of lights with how fast it was.

Instinctively, her reaction was not wanting to go on it. As before, she was never a huge fan of fairgrounds, so jumping straight into what was obviously one of the fastest rides they had did not seem like the best idea. However, this wasn’t just a night out with her friends; it was a night out with Anne. In other words, she was willing to do whatever Anne wanted.

“That one looks good.” Cathy nodded, and so she was dragged along to the line and, after a tiny amount of waiting, was guided to a carriage by the ride’s operator.

Once they were both strapped in and the safety bar was locked down, Cathy’s eyes began following the man operating the ride as he went through the other passengers and repeated the same safety procedures. When he was finishing up on the last carriage, Cathy finally relented and shot her hand out to grab hold of Anne’s.

“You okay?” Anne, who was also watching the man but for reasons of excitement rather than nervousness, diverted her gaze to Cathy.

“Yeah. Just get a little nervous on these types of things.” Cathy admitted with a shy smile as if trying to make up for what she had said.

“Aw, babe.” Anne frowned, “We didn’t have to come here, we can ask to get off if you want to.”

“No.” Cathy shook her head, “I’m not, like, terrified or anything. I can handle it. Just need to hold your hand.”

“Well, I’d never deny holding your hand. No matter the circumstance.” Anne smiled at her, squeezing Cathy’s hand comfortingly.

They didn’t have any more time to speak after that because, without warning, the ride cranked up into a slow start. This slowness did not last long though because after just one or two spins around the ride’s axis, suddenly everything sped up to the same blurry speed they had both been watching just minutes earlier.

At first, this was terrifying for Cathy. However, this fear was soon to melt into indifference and then, after that, ignite into enjoyment. This was probably something to do with the way that, despite the way she frantically waved her free arm in the air, Anne did not let go of her hand for a second. By the end of the ride, she was nearly as exhilarated as her date, daring to also use her free hand to wave around in the air and even eliciting a few excited cheers to join Anne’s own.

When the ride slowed down to a stop, it was not to her relief as she had originally anticipated. No, Cathy was a little sad that it had ended so soon. However, she knew what she had to do and clambered dizzily out of the ride like the rest of the passengers. For some reason, she was laughing to herself as she walked back down the steps, still not letting Anne’s hand go until they reached the bottom.

“Your attitude to the ride changed quickly, I see.” Anne teased.

“It was more fun than I thought. I guess I just haven’t been to a fairground in a while and forgot how good they actually are.” Cathy pondered before continuing, “I also think you have something to do with it.”

“Of course I do.” Anne flashed a cocky grin, and if it was anyone else Cathy would have rolled her eyes, “Now it’s your turn to choose.”

“Okay.” Cathy looked around all the surrounding attractions until one finally caught her eye, “That one.”

She gestured to a ride that was a little slower than what they had just been on, but that was made up by the fact that it literally threw the passengers upside down.

Anne raised her eyebrows and glanced at Cathy with a shocked expression, “Wow, that really is an upgrade from scared, clinging to my hand Cathy from a few minutes ago.”

“Really?” Cathy glanced back at Anne, refusing to take the teasing, “Sounds to me like you’re just trying to make excuses because now  _ you’re  _ scared to go on the ride.”

“Me?” Anne looked almost offended, “Not for a second. C’mon.”

Then they were racing across the fairground, hand in hand once more, to the ride that Cathy had picked out. It was another short wait in line until they were strapped in next to each other once more, and although both of them insisted they weren’t scared, they maintained the iron grip onto each other’s hands between the seats as the ride started again.

This routine was repeated many more times after the evening, each of them growing more euphoric with each attraction they chose. Many rides later and after clambering off of a ride of Anne’s choosing, they both were laughing hysterically as they stumbled out into the open ground again, drunk off of the adrenaline.

“This is literally the best fucking night.” Anne commented as she came to her regular senses, looking around at Cathy again, “Your turn to pick, love.”

Cathy hummed in thought as she once again looked around, trying to find a fun looking ride that they hadn’t yet been on. That’s when her eyes landed on something else.

“Oh my God.”

“What?”

“Look at that!” Cathy raised her arm and exuberantly pointed at one of the prize booths that were loitered around the fairground.

“You wanna try win something?”

“I want that otter.” Cathy simply stated, and, upon further inspection, Anne noticed exactly what she was talking about. Hung up as one of the available prizes was a huge plush otter, which had seemingly caught Cathy’s attention.

“Let’s go over there then and try win it.” Anne said, leading them both in a confident stride up to the stall and standing in front of the counter.

The booth was being run by a bored looking guy who looked to be the same age as them, and it was very clear that he was only working at this fairground for some spare cash on the side. When Anne and Cathy arrived, he tried to look a little more enthusiastic, but even in their heightened states they could both see right through it.

“How many rounds d’you want?” He asked, “Three, five or ten?”

“Ten.” Anne answered, taking a handful of change from her pocket and placing it on the counter to have a go. The employee counted through it and, once satisfied, deposited it in a collection tin before digging under his counter and pulling out a plastic gun.

“The goal is to shoot all of the targets to win any of the prizes. You can’t miss a target. You get ten goes. You can pay for more tries if you don’t win.” His words were monotone, like he had said the same thing a thousand times already. He probably had. “Which one of you two ladies are gonna play?”

“Cathy.” Anne replied, nodding in her date’s direction. The guy handed down the plastic gun and then stepped aside, providing Cathy a clear shooting range.

However, ten tries later and Cathy had only managed to shoot one of the three targets with the rubber bullets. She frowned as the employee shook his head, her heart still set on winning the otter but not wanting to pay even more for another round. It was common knowledge that these prize booths were purposefully nearly impossible to beat, but she still had a little hope for the first time.

“Bad luck. D’you wanna try again?”

“Yeah.” Anne nodded before Cathy could say no, and she dug around in her pocket once more for even more change, “Ten more tries. For me this time.”

The guy nodded, taking the coins and counting through them before looking back up at Anne, “There’s only enough here for five tries. You still wanna go?”

“Yep.” Anne said, so the employee handed back the spare money and deposited the required fee into the collection tin once more. Then she reached out her hand to Cathy for the plastic gun whilst the guy picked up the rubber bullets from earlier and handed five of them to Anne to load into the barrel.

Cathy watched all this go down with great anticipation. On one level, she was rooting for Anne simply because she wanted to see Anne succeed. On the next level, she just really wanted that stuffed otter. Whichever way she looked at the situation, she needed Anne to win.

“You can do it.” Cathy commented as Anne raised the plastic gun. So much tension was being put on a simple fairground minigame, and yet not one of the three present even questioned it.

“Thanks, babe. I better be able to do it, just for you.” And then Anne assumed a stance of full concentration, narrowing her eyes at the targets and firmening her posture to align with her first shot.

A miss. A hit. An excited cheer from Cathy. Another hit and another even more excited cheer from Cathy. A second miss and suddenly it was the fifth try with only one bullet and one target left. Both spectators were watching with anticipation; Cathy from wanting that plushie and the employee from never often seeing a person actually win the games. Anne shot.

A hit! As soon as the bullet collided with the tiny circle of wood, Anne threw her hands up in triumph, almost chucking the plastic gun across the fairground as Cathy flung herself gratefully into Anne’s arms. The employee, genuinely impressed by her feat, slowly clapped. It wasn't everyday he witnessed somebody win the challenge.

“Congratulations.” He complimented, “What prize?”

Anne turned away from the adorably ecstatic Cathy but still kept her arms wrapped around her, only moving them to place the plastic gun back onto the counter.

“The otter, please.” She responded, nodding up at the plush she was talking about. The employee nodded and reached up, untying the toy from its hook and handing it down to Anne. “Thank you.”

Then the couple walked away, Anne immediately handing the plush to Cathy who gratefully hugged it in her arms.

“I can’t believe you actually won that game.” Cathy said, looking up at Anne with stars in her eyes, “I thought they’re really rigged.”

“They kind of are, but I got really good at them last year when there was this octopus thing that Kitty really wanted.” Anne explained, laughing slightly at the memory.

“Sounds like you and her.” Cathy teased, sighing affectionately, “Thanks, Anne. You’re the best.”

“Hey, I couldn’t just not win the otter. Not when you looked so excited to see it.”

“I’ll treasure him forever.”

“What’re you gonna name him?”

“Otto. Otto the otter.”

“Wow, very creative.”

“Shush!” Cathy playfully rolled her eyes, gently pushing Anne as if to discipline her.

This only elicited laughter from her date as she wrapped her arms around Cathy, shaking her head. “You shush. Anyway, I still have enough change for one more thing.”

“What is it?” Cathy inquisitively looked up at Anne.

“I saw a candy floss sign at one of the food trucks.”

That’s how they ended up sitting on one of the empty benches, cones of candy floss in hand and spending the time calming down from their adrenaline rushes after so long of nonstop super fast fairground riding. After they had finished, they both decided it wasn’t a good idea to continue the theme of fast rides straight after eating literal liquified sugar and so made their way to what they both considered to be one of the less paced rides; the bumper cars.

By this point the fairground was near closing and so they only had two other cars in the ring with them, but that didn’t stop them from dominating the track. Luckily, this fairground fit two into a car and so Anne sat on the side with the steering wheel whilst Cathy kept her foot firmly pressed down onto the acceleration. They made a surprisingly dynamic duo for the whole duration of this ride, and both would later brag about being the ‘winners’ of that specific round.

When they got off of that ride, Cathy checked her phone to see what the time was.

“I’d say we have just enough time for one more ride.” She told Anne as she pocketed her phone once more.

“Which one?” Anne asked, but they both had the same idea in mind.

Looming over them this whole time and yet so far untouched was the grand ferris wheel, cycling gently around and painting a ring of dazzling light in the otherwise charcoal night sky. They shared a glance and then it was clear that they were both thinking the same thing, so they followed where their feet took them and queued up for their final ride of the evening.

WIthin no time they were at the front of the queue and were guided to their assigned pod by the ride operator. They sat opposite each other with Otto sitting on the seat next to Cathy, and about half a minute after the carriage door was closed, they were airbourne.

It was unlike any of the other rides they had been on that night. Instead of being fast and explosive in movement, it was gentle and peaceful. There was no excited screaming nor the sound of wind in their ears to prevent them from speaking to each other; it was truly just the two of them, which felt like the most perfect way to end their first date.

“Cathy,” Anne broke the calming silence first, “This has been the best first date I’ve ever had, and the best first date you could have ever taken me on.”

Cathy beamed with a bit of pride before reaching across and taking Anne’s hands, “Well, it was a pleasure. I’ve enjoyed every minute, even at the start when I was terrified, I had you there for me and that made it okay. Plus, you won me Otto.”

They both side glanced at the plush toy before Anne continued, “Guess we both had a great time then.”

“Yeah, guess we did.”

“Then let’s do this again. If you want to.”

“I definitely want to do something like this again.” Cathy nodded and then they were back in that comfortable silence until the pod reached the very top of the wheel and paused moving for a minute so they could both look out and admire the view.

“It’s beautiful.” Anne commented, her eyes darting over the view of the fairground and the city, twinkling with their lights.

“You’re beautiful.” Cathy replied, and they both looked away from the pod’s window to simply watch one another.

Even though they were just at the top of the ferris wheel, it felt like they were on top of the world. In their slightly cramped ferris pod, it was just the two of them, Otto and the relaxing swaying of the nighttime breeze on the carriage. There was no better environment for their love to be harvested in.

“There’s no one else I would rather have spent tonight with.” Anne said.

In that moment, after a month of pining, a week of mutual affection and two actionpacked hours of a date, they both knew the time was right. They had been patiently waiting for this perfect moment to come and now, in the awestruck gaze they shared, they both silently agreed that this was the moment.

Suddenly, they were the only people who existed anymore. There was no city surrounding them and they were not seventy metres up in the air, suspended over a popup fairground with an otter plush next to them. No, this was their private universe right now, and they could do whatever they wanted.

So they both leaned in, perfectly in sync. And then they kissed.

Their lips pressed together, but not in a way that was hungry or demanding. No, it might have been passionate but it was gentle and loving. Fireworks exploded in both of their hearts, and truly then were they suspended in a dimension of magic with only each other. This moment was all they had both been dreaming of and looking forward to and they were relishing every valuable second of it.

Neither of them wanted it to end because every fraction of a second was their own personal heaven and everything felt so right even though it was their first time together. The way they felt so synchronised; the gentle playing of Anne’s fingers in Cathy’s curls whilst Cathy held onto Anne’s waist and pulled her closer still. It was truly the peak of perfection. However, all good things must come to an unfortunate end.

When the ride began to dip into a descent, they both knew it was their cue to pull apart and so that’s what they did. For a moment, they simply stared across at one another, but not with awkwardness. No, their smitten faces and starry eyes were anything but awkward as they watched each other.

And then Anne started to laugh. A small, delighted giggle, as if she had no idea how to expel the rush of positive emotions other than like this. So Cathy started laughing too, and soon enough they were both laughing as they reached the ground again, sharing one last quick kiss and noting how sweet each other’s giggling tasted before the door opened back up and they climbed out.

Not before thanking the ride operator, the giddy couple walked from the attraction hand in hand, pressed against each other as much as they could be without making it physically impossible to walk. With minutes left before closing time, they walked back through the entrance and then were back in the car park outside the fairground.

They decided to catch a cab to drive them back to the university. At this time of night, there weren’t many people calling the service (it was too late for the regular daytimers and too early for the drunken escorts home), so the arrival of the car was nice and quick. It was cosy in the back seat as they cuddled into each other, talking lowly into each other’s ears and whispering sweet affections underneath the radio so their driver couldn’t hear.

In no time they were home, cab driver paid and even more generously tipped than the waitress at the beginning of the night. However, as they walked back into their dorm, they realised that, even though they literally lived in the same apartment, neither of them wanted to separate yet.

“How about you come sleep in my room with me tonight?” Anne offered with a hopeful look.

“I’d like that a lot.” Cathy accepted and, soon enough, they were both changed into their pyjamas and under Anne’s covers. Anne’s hair was down from its signature space buns and Cathy had brought Otto into the bed with her; they had never felt more relaxed with each other than they did in this moment.

“Goodnight, Cathy.” Anne sleepily mumbled.

“Goodnight, Anne.” Cathy lovingly answered, holding onto her tightly.

“Wait, before I sleep, I wanna ask you something.”

“What is it?” Cathy tilted her head up from its position resting in the crook of Anne’s neck to face the girl in question.

“Can we be official girlfriends now?”

“Yes.” Cathy’s lips curled into a warm and affectionate smile at how doey her question was, “Yes, we can be. I want to be.”

“Does that mean I can kiss you again?”

“It does.”

So Anne leant forward and placed one last gentle kiss on Cathy’s lips for that night, before leaning back into her pillow once more and closing her eyes.

“Goodnight, Cathy.” She said for the second time.

“Goodnight, Anne.”

It was quick for Anne to fall asleep after that. Cathy could tell by the way her hold, although still strong, loosened slightly and by the delicate rise and fall of her chest. She laid awake for a little longer than Anne, simply listening to the sound of her small breaths and thinking fondly back at the events of the night - focusing especially on what had happened at the top of the ferris wheel.

Eventually, though, Cathy also drifted off into a comfortable slumber. It was one of the only nights that she fell asleep fairly quickly, as well as the only nights that she didn’t spend hours writing or reading before she involuntarily passed out at her desk. Neither of these facts mattered though; it was the perfect end of a perfect night with Anne, as far as she cared.

All Cathy knew was that she wanted to do this again and again and again.


	12. Chapter Twelve

As was to be expected after becoming girlfriends, Anne and Cathy only got even closer. They were already at the point of affection and almost constant attention before their fairground date, so making it official had only skyrocketed this seemingly endless endearment even more. Yes, that was somehow possible.

There had been more successful dates that had spiralled out of a result of becoming official too. These had all gone just as well as their first date, if not even better. Whether it was an impromptu 2am visit to McDonald’s after one of them woke up hungry or an actually arranged picnic at the local park, both of them got enjoyment in each other’s company.

On one level, this was what they had both been dreaming about. For it to be finally here was amazing! Neither of them would have traded it for the world. To be the centre of one another’s attention and constantly one the receiving end of affection was everything they had wanted. However, despite all the great things to come from their relationship, there was one particular problem that they hadn’t predicted or foreseen, even with the fact that they had been spending a good portion of their times imagining this reality beforehand; the others.

With each day that passed, it was getting increasingly harder to hide their new relationship from their friends. Swallowing the urge to wrap the other up in a hug whenever they greeted each other was growing to be more and more difficult as time progressed, and acting as just a pair of friends when they were both so pleased by the fact that they were in actuality much more than that was tiring. By this point, the others must have noticed the tension between the pair or at least picked up on the ‘almost’ moments where Anne and Cathy had restrained themselves at the last second. They just weren’t saying anything about it.

Even if the others somehow had not picked up on this, the occasional times that they let their guard down and were caught in a compromising position were all dead giveaways. One time, whilst having a sleepover at Catalina and Jane’s dorm room, Jane had walked in on the pair of them sat on the sofa, faces centimetres apart. Another time they had gone out to a local restaurant with Kat and Anna and the latter had commented about how they were so close, they were probably holding hands underneath the table (they were, but that was beside the point). Neither of these events helped in hiding their relationship at all.

Then there was Catalina. Although she hadn’t walked in on anything like Jane or made suggestive comments like Anna had, there was a certain energy with which she carried herself that felt like she knew something. This was only made even more abundantly clear by the occasional knowing looks she shot either of the two, especially when they were being a little clingy. Cathy had no idea why this was, but Anne had an inkling of what was causing this; her mind often flashing back to that rainy day where she had desperately knocked at Catalina’s door and the tiny but trustful look they had shared.

So, all four of their friends were somewhat aware that there was something going on between them. Whether or not they thought it was just mutual crushing or if they had assumed they were undergoing a secret relationship (which was correct) didn’t matter - they were all onto something regardless. This train of thought led to a conversation between Cathy and Anne in the privacy of their dorm room, where they could be as affectionate as they pleased without fearing their secret being exposed.

“It’s getting tiring, having to pretend we’re not together and I’m not into you.” Anne complained, sitting in Cathy’s arms and playing with her curls. This was a habit that she had picked up pretty quickly after becoming official. “Like, I was pretending I wasn’t into you for ages before we started dating. I deserve a break!”

“Annie.” Cathy chuckled slightly at her girlfriend’s frustrations, pressing a kiss to her temple to try and soothe her, “I know, it is a little annoying.”

“Yeah.” Anne huffed, dropping her hands to her lap and resting her head in the crook of Cathy’s neck.

For a moment, Cathy pondered in the silence that followed. Even though Anne was just being a little grouchy and playful with her irritation, she was able to tell that it was growing to be more than just a little bothersome to not be able to be out around their friends. Anne was undeniably herself, after all - it was undoubtedly hard for her to just keep a big part of her life locked behind closed doors.

The last thing Cathy wanted to do was to upset Anne. Even though she had reassured Cathy that it was perfectly fine to want to keep their relationship private for a little while, Cathy still feared she was going to push the secrecy for a little too long. Why was she even insisting on keeping it a private thing anyway? Anne was fine with telling everyone straight away.

Then again, Anne was already openly bisexual to everyone, as it turned out. How this slipped Cathy during her crushing phase she didn’t know, but Anne had told her that coming out was one of the first things she did when she arrived at the university. Her family at home were quite conservative, so to rejoice in finally being open about her sexuality as soon as she was away from them was understandable.

For Cathy, it was a different story. Thus far, she was out to only two people; her girlfriend and her best friend. In fact, she had only confronted her sexuality fairly recently after so much time denying it, despite the fact that she wasn’t held back by barriers of a homophobic family or conservative relatives. Being on two completely different planes of self discovery, it was to be expected that they would have different reactions to becoming openly together.

That’s what Anne had reassured her. Yet, even with her girlfriend’s words, Cathy still often thought to herself about it. She conducted self on self interrogations in her mind, trying to weed a suitable excuse for not coming out in her mind, yet she never had one. Of the three who didn’t know her secret, two of them were literally in a gay relationship with each other and the other one was Jane. There was nothing to be scared about, not really.

With these thoughts trekking through her mind for what was the hundredth time, combined with the fear of upsetting Anne, Cathy finally took her inner debate a step further; drawing a conclusion. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t come up with a good enough reason to keep her relationship under wraps anymore. Anne wanted to be open, she herself wanted to be open, and their friends were nothing but supportive.

There really was only one obvious answer, even if it had taken so long to confront it. Nerves just really do that to a person, Cathy supposed. Yet she was determined that her own anxieties would hold her back no more. So, she glanced down at Anne, who was still nestled into her side and spoke.

“Maybe we should just come out already.”

“Huh?” Anne pulled away a little bit to face Cathy properly, “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Cathy nodded.

“Like, really? It’s just kind of sudden, and I don’t want you doing anything that makes you uncomfortable, especially if it’s just to please me or something.”

“Babe, don’t worry so much.” Cathy rested her palm atop Anne’s hand, “I’ve been thinking about it for a little while now, and I don’t see the point in staying secret about it anymore. Like, am I little scared to come out? Yes, but I want to just show everyone that you’re mine and I’m yours even more.”

Anne bit her lip, looking up at Cathy with a proud smile, “That’s really brave, love. You’re one hundred percent sure, though?”

“One hundred percent.” Cathy repeated with an affirmative nod, and thus Anne’s proud smile quickly contorted into an excited grin.

“Then how should we do it?” Anne began musing ideas, “Something big or something simple?”

“Give me examples.”

“Big would be throwing a fucking party or something. Simple would be like, I dunno, not even coming out at all and just kissing in front of them one day and seeing how they react.”

“The second one sounds more like a prank you want to try out.”

“It is not!” Anne gasped with a mock offence.

“I’m just messing with you.” Cathy chuckled softly, pulling Anne closer once more and humming in thought at the two options presented, “But I don’t know what we should do. How did Kat and Anna come out?”

“I could already tell they were into each other ages before they got together.” Anne snorted with laughter at the memories of the mutually pining pair, “As soon as they got together, Kitty called me all excited and gushed everything to me.”

Although she found the story a little amusing, it wasn’t like Cathy could take a leaf from Kat and Anna’s book. “Sounds cute, but we’ve left it a little late for that.”

Some discussion later and the pair were just going around in circles. There was a mutual temptation to make it a grand gesture, but also the longing to simply integrate their relationship into how their group already functioned as if it was always there. Neither of them were getting anywhere with decision making until Anne finally made one suggestion in particular.

“Instead of thinking so much, why don’t we just text them all right now, and if all of them are free, ask them to come to our dorm and just tell them?”

“Like, right now?” Cathy raised an eyebrow, a little easy.

“If you want to. I know it’s quick and you don’t really have time to prepare, so we can just leave it ‘til another day.”

“No.” Cathy shook her head, “Might as well get it over and done with.”

Leaving it until another day was just stepping back into that spiral of not telling them at all, as far as Cathy was concerned. The task was something she would have to face eventually, and it was better sooner than later. Even if sooner meant in the next five minutes.

“Sure?”

“I’m sure. If I’ve got you, I’ll be fine.”

“And you’ll have me through everything.” Anne warmly reassured, sitting up a bit to press a quick kiss up onto Cathy’s cheek, “Do you wanna text them or shall I?”

“I’ll text them all in the group chat.”

So Cathy pulled out her phone and opened the group chat of the six of them whilst Anne got up and walked to the fridge in search of a snack.

**_To: Annie, Jane, Anna, Lina + Kitty_ **

**_Hey guys_ **

**_What are you all doing?_ **

**_From: Jane_ **

**_Not much! Lina and I have just been relaxing on the sofa all evening. She says hi!_ **

**_From: Kitty_ **

**_DESTROYING ANNA AT MARIO KART_ **

**_To: Annie, Jane, Anna, Lina + Kitty_ **

**_Hi Lina :)_ **

**_So you’re busy?_ **

**_From: Kitty_ **

**_no just passing the time_ **

**_hi catalina!!!!! <3_ **

**_From: Anna_ **

**_she is not destroying me she’s just getting first place and i’m getting second_ **

**_From: Annie_ **

**_mmmmhhhmmmmmmmm_ **

**_that’s what they all say_ **

Cathy looked up from her phone and across the dorm to her girlfriend who was smirking down at her phone screen. She rolled her eyes and then glanced back down at her own screen to read some of the messages.

**_From: Lina_ **

**_Me and Jane aren’t busy either_ **

**_Why?_ **

**_To: Annie, Jane, Anna, Lina + Kitty_ **

**_Anne and I were wondering if you could all come to our dorm right now_ **

**_We know it’s a little short notice, so it’s fine if not_ **

**_But we’d like to tell you all something_ **

**_From: Jane_ **

**_Yes, we can come now if you need us to_ **

**_At least, me and Lina can_ **

**_Is everything okay?_ **

**_To: Annie, Jane, Anna, Lina + Kitty_ **

**_Yes everything’s fine!! Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad_ **

**_Kit and Anna?_ **

**_From: Anna_ **

**_yeah we can come_ **

**_right now?_ **

**_To: Annie, Jane, Anna, Lina + Kitty_ **

**_Please_ **

**_Thanks guys_ **

**_We’ll leave the door open, just walk in_ **

**_From: Anna_ **

**_okay see you in like two minutes_ **

**_To: Annie, Jane, Anna, Lina + Kitty_ **

**_See you soon!_ **

Cathy put her phone down and looked up at Anne, who, after unlocking the door, threw the remnants of the fruit she was snacking on into the bin and retook her seat. This time she didn’t nestle straight into Cathy’s side like she was before, opting to sit next to her and straight her posture a little for their sudden announcement.

“I’m a little nervous.” Cathy admitted, glancing around at Anne.

“I know, babe, but I promise everything will be fine.” Anne placed a supportive hand on Cathy’s knee, “You’ll have me here all the while, and you know they won’t think anything bad of us anyway.”

“You’re right.” Cathy nodded and for a moment they just stayed in that position until the door swung open and in walked Jane and Catalina. Instinctively, with their arrival, Anne jumped away from Cathy as if nothing was going on; it had just become a habit at this point. Not for much longer though, not when they tell the others in just a few more short minutes.

When Kat and Anna arrived shortly afterwards and everyone was sitting down, the four guests stared expectantly at Anne and Cathy.

“So, what’s all this about then?” Jane asked, trying not to pry but also full of curiosity and a little concern that the girls had a problem on their plates.

“Yeah, it’s kinda spooky how serious you look.” Anna joked, trying to make the situation a little more lighthearted.

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad.” Cathy reassured once more as she had over text message, “We just needed to tell you this.”

“Tell us what?” Kat tilted her head to the side with curiosity but not in the same worried way as Jane - no, her inquisitiveness was just natural.

Cathy and Anne shared a look, and Anne knew what she needed to do. Reaching over, she no longer cared that they had an audience of friends watching them as she took Cathy’s hand and squeezed it reassuringly. This was it; the moment she had been waiting for, where she could finally tell the others of her relationship. From this point on, she could finally be publicly affectionate. That started with holding her girlfriend’s hand when she needed it.

Then she finally looked across each pair of anticipating eyes and spoke their truth.

“Cathy and I are dating.”

There was a plethora of different reactions across the room. Kat raised her eyebrows slightly. Anna looked impartial, albeit a little shocked. Jane’s stress from earlier depleted in an instant and was replaced with a warm smile. Catalina also wore a smile; a proud one.

“I wish I could pretend to be a little more shocked.” Anna broke the silence, her impartial expression relaxing into a congratulatory smile.

“Anna!” Kat exclaimed, lightly slapping her arm as if to discipline her. Anne just laughed and shook her head at their antics, and Cathy also seemed to relax a little. It wasn’t a judgemental comment at all; it was just Anna being herself.

“They know I’m kidding. Right?” Anna glanced at the couple to make sure before continuing with their nods of confirmation, “Good. But seriously guys, good for you. I’m glad.”

“Yeah!” Jane nodded happily, “You two were already great together before, so congratulations! I’m really happy for you both, especially considering I was assuming the worst when you said you had to tell us all something. Thank you for telling us.”

“Nah, it’s fine.” Anne waved it off, “Had to tell you eventually. Thanks, guys, by the way.”

There was further talk and more congratulations from the other two on top of a couple of questions, but Cathy let Anne lead the conversation as she spaced out and began to think. It was done. What she had been fearing to do for so long was finally complete and behind her. And it was so, so easy.

A weight was immediately off of her shoulders as she relished in the well wishes and kindness from their collective friends. She really did have nothing to worry about after all; that was becoming apparent right now. Even if this made her feel a little phoney for having hidden for so long, the happiness that this situation brought far outweighed that. Now she could be completely and undeniably herself in front of her friends - she could proudly say she was dating Anne Boleyn. It really was the perfect outcome.

However, none of them were planning on sitting there and talking about Anne and Cathy’s relationship all night, so as soon as that topic subsided, they didn’t really know what to do. After a little more talking, they decided that considering they were all together now and none of them were busy, they would just continue to hang out at Anne and Cathy’s. This escalated into ordering a couple of pizzas for them all to share, so Anne excused herself for a minute to grab some money from her room to pay.

She hummed to herself as she dug around her jacket pockets, searching for the spare notes she knew she had left inside one of them. When she finally found the crumpled up cash, she smiled in triumph and turned around to leave her room and return to the others. That was when she finally noticed who else was in her room.

Catalina Aragon had followed her there and was standing in her doorway, though not in a menacing way. Rather, she seemed that she was just waiting for Anne to be finished looking for her money before she started to talk.

“Hi, Catalina.” Anne waved a little, “What’s up? You kinda scared me a little, just standing there.”

“Wasn’t my intention.” Catalina gave her an apologetic look and then continued on with a teasing tone, “It’s quite the mess in here.”

“So now both you and Cathy tell me that.” Anne rolled her eyes.

“I was just teasing.” Catalina chuckled, “But, on a more serious note, can we talk?”

“Yeah, sure.” Anne nodded, though was a little thrown off at the sudden need to have a conversation. Especially given the news she had just broken.

Catalina stepped forward into the room and closed the door behind her so the others couldn’t overhear, even though they were all busy discussing something Kat had brought up.

“I’ve been wanting to say this since the day you came knocking on my door, but obviously I’ve been waiting until you guys told us all.”

“Yeah, go on.”

“Treat her right, Anne, please.” Catalina’s tone was somewhere between a warning and a trustful one, “I mean, I know you will, but just in case. I need to have told you this.”

In that moment, Anne could see just how deeply Catalina’s care for Cathy ran. If the way she had silently slipped away from the group didn’t prove it, the serious tone with which she spoke definitely did. Although she didn’t outright voice it, Anne knew that, if she did hurt Cathy at any point, she would be dealing with a very angry Catalina. Luckily, she had nothing to worry about; there were no plans to hurt Cathy and there never would be.

“Of course I will.” Anne nodded, “I’d never hurt her. I like her too much for that. I want to protect her from people who do want to hurt her.”

“You and me both.” Catalina chuckled, her tone relaxing slightly, “Sorry for getting serious all of a sudden, I just had to make sure I told you that. I know how much you like her, I could see it ever since you came to my dorm that day; the worry you had.”

Anne blushed a little, feeling very called out. Good thing Cathy wasn’t here to overhear this. “Well, it’s true, I do like her a lot.”

“I know.” Catalina nodded, “And I’m glad it’s you this time. There’s been other people in the past, horrible people. I’m glad that this time I can finally see her going into a relationship and genuinely feeling happy for her.”

Anne couldn’t help the smile that curled on her lips, her heart warming with the approval from Catalina. Even though she prided herself on being very apathetic to what other people thought, it still felt great to have this stripe of approval; like it was the only one that mattered.

“Thanks, Lina.” Anne smiled, “And I’m glad she has you too.”

“What do you mean?” Catalina raised an eyebrow with confusion.

“Someone else who cares for her too. Not in the same way, obviously, but it’s caring nonetheless. You were there for her before I was, and I’m happy she has a friend like you to go to no matter what. I just want her to be happy, and you make her be just that. Don’t sell yourself short.”

“Wow, Anne.” Catalina hadn’t really expected the comment returned in such a way, so she was a little taken aback, “Thank you. What you just said just makes me even more confident in you being the right choice for her.”

“It’s no problem.” Anne smiled and after a few seconds of silence spoke again, “Do you have anything else you want to talk about or shall we go back inside?”

“That was all I wanted to say.” Catalina said, so the pair both walked back out from Anne’s bedroom and returned to the living room.

“Took you two long enough!” Anna exclaimed as they came back, “We were just bullying Cathy about her ‘hating Anne Boleyn’ era.”

“It was a two-way street!” Cathy defended for the thousandth time.

“The dark days.” Anne joked, placing the money on the coffee table, ready for when the food arrived. Then she retook her seat next to Cathy, this time with all the freedom in the world to get close and snuggle into her side, whispering into her ear, “Doesn’t matter what we said back then. What’s happening now is most important to me.”

Cathy just wrapped her arms around Anne and pulled her closer at that.

As the night went on, the warm and elated feeling inside of Anne remained. Though it was completely unplanned, everything had gone perfectly. Suddenly, she was finally allowed to be Cathy’s and have Cathy be hers in front of everyone. The world was now allowed to see just how much she adored Cathy, and Anne couldn’t wait to show it. She even had the Catalina Aragon stamp of approval, which was the only badge of pride she needed.

There was definitely a contentedness in Anne’s heart that evening, and as long as she stayed with Cathy, that feeling would remain forever.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

After coming out to their circle of friends, it was a surprisingly small step for Cathy to feel comfortable with being completely open about her relationship with Anne. There was no convincing required at all for Cathy to start holding Anne’s hand as they walked through the university halls, fully aware that the watchful eyes of other pupils surrounded her. Now Cathy had the definitive support of her friends, she didn’t really care about being completely public with her relationship.

This meant that, as mentioned above, Anne and Cathy walked the halls hand in hand without a care in the world for looks they might receive. They also made sure to give each other quick kisses before they separated for their different classes and had posted photos of dates and other intimate moments on their social medias on more than one occasion, and this was just to name a few of the things they did. By this point, it was impossible not to notice that Anne Boleyn and Cathy Parr were together.

Thus far, the couple had received no backlash or mean spirited comments about their relationship from any of their peers. Even though they lived in a modern society where their type of relationship was acceptable, this was somewhat surprising for them both - but pleasant nonetheless. Everything was going perfectly, actually; they were out, they had received support, and, above all else, they had each other. In a way, it felt like things were running too smoothly. Unfortunately, this was not just forgetful paranoia.

In the afternoon one day, Cathy had just returned to the campus after a trip to the town square. Instead of heading back to her dorm room, however, she made her way to the education block and then through the school until she got to the drama department. This was a part of the building she rarely visited, mainly because none of her majors were centred around here. However, since getting with Anne, she had been coming here a lot more because this part of the university was where most of her girlfriend’s classes were held.

Her plan was to surprise Anne on her last class of the day. Recently, she had seen that classwork was beginning to stress her girlfriend out and sponge up her happy attitude, even if she wouldn’t admit it herself. This was only understandable; it was their final year at university and they were already halfway through it. Anne was majoring in drama and the drama exam season happened to start the earliest. In other words, Anne was in the first group of students to be thrown into the exam period.

Not any exam period either. These weren’t mocks or practice exams. No, these were the final year exams - the most important exams of her whole university career. Anne had spent all of her time since arriving at the university on her first day building up to this. If she made one mistake and failed these exams, she felt like she was done for.

The toll of the stress was noticeable on Anne, but she refused to let it get to her; denying all help and insisting she was fine. Whilst Cathy believed her on everything else, she knew these claims were a flat out lie, and she was going to do her best to help support Anne as best as possible whilst she was going through exams. 

That’s why, as she approached the auditorium, she had a brown paper bag in her hands. Inside the bag were goods from a bakery that they had fled into after it had started pouring down with rain on a shopping visit to the town centre. It wasn’t a huge gift, but Cathy hoped that surprising Anne with it was enough to give her a little bit of a mood boost.

When she arrived at the door, she peeked in slightly at the window to see the class still going. Although her view was a little obscured given the fact that she was looking in the window, she could make out the auditorium’s stage lit up and a group of students in the class midway through a performance. She squinted a little, trying to make out if Anne was performing, but she was at too far a distance to tell and every figure was too much of a blurred silhouette to make out Anne’s outline.

Knowing she couldn’t just walk in, especially not during a performance that was potentially exam prep, Cathy took a few paces away from the door and sat on one of the backless seats that were dotted around the halls to wait for her girlfriend. This was quiet for a little while until two guys appeared from one of the classrooms in the corridor and started heading towards the auditorium she was waiting outside of. Cathy ignored them at first, assuming they were students in Anne’s class and going to join in. That was until they stopped in front of her and stared at her expectantly.

Instinctively yet involuntarily, Cathy’s grip tightened around the bag with nerves and she shuffled back a little bit, her back pushing against the wall. Silently, she scolded herself for being so anxious around new and unfamiliar people; it was something she had to work on, especially in times like these, when Anne wasn’t around to guide the situation.

Trying not to overreact, Cathy assumed that these boys were simply two of Anne’s classmates. She had met and talked to many of her classmates before, and all of them had been nice. This was probably no different. So, swallowing the introductory nerves, she shifted her gaze to meet their faces and cleared her throat.

“Hi.” She said, though it came out as more of a question than a greeting. God, if only Anne’s class would end soon. Then she could come and take over whatever awkward interaction was about to commence.

“You’re Anne Boleyn’s girlfriend, aren’t you?” One of the boys, the one on the left, looked Cathy up and down as he spoke. This caused Cathy to shift uncomfortably under his glare, never feeling so scrutinised.

“Uh, yeah.” Cathy nodded, diverting her gaze a little but still facing in their general direction.

“Hey, look at him when he’s speaking to you.” The second one piped up with a threatening tone, “God, of all the people at this campus, and she dates  _ you _ .”

Before Cathy could ask what he meant by that, the other one was already talking again.

“I know, right? Like, she has her pick of the whole university and she goes for a fucking nobody!”

“And a girl too!”

They both erupted into laughter and Cathy looked between them both, a mixture of fear and anger boiling at the pit of her stomach.

“What’s it to you who Anne’s dating?” Cathy piped up, her courage spiked by the awful emotions she was feeling. Both their faces turned stony as they stopped laughing and looked back at Cathy. Immediately, she wondered if she had made a mistake by speaking up.

“What’s it to us?” One of them questioned, and then they looked at each other. It took only a few seconds for the uncaring expressions to drop, their straight and threatening faces contorting into wide grins of laughter and mocking once more.

“We’re not the only ones who think it’s weird, we’re just the only ones who are actually being loud about it.” The other explained as he came down from his laughing fit once more.

“Everyone might be being nice to you, and commenting about how cute you both are, but that’s just to your face. Everywhere else, this whole university is talking about how weird it is. How funny it is that someone like you, a fucking nerdy, quiet, socially incapable English major, is dating someone like her. Not to mention you’re a girl.”

“I think that she’s doing it out of pity.”

“That’s what most people think, Thomas.”

Cathy looked between them both, startled into silence. She refused to let her eyes glass and so kept up a straining facade, biting down on her lip so it would stop trembling. For someone who was so full of words, there were none that came to mind in the moment. Even if there were, Cathy doubted she would have said them, else risk her voice breaking and exposing how hurt she felt.

Usually, she didn’t care about what other people thought. It was something she was just used to; keeping her head down and working through her academic life. She had been doing that since the start of her education and was now in the final few months, so by this point, she was completely hardened to those types of comments. As long as she had her friends, which she did, she was fine.

However, this wasn’t just something she could roll her eyes at and sleep comfortably at night after. For starters, unlike the common insult, she hadn’t had enough time with Anne to build up a shield against rudeness concerning their relationship. What was more was the fact that the boys weren’t just throwing rudeness at her. Even if they didn’t intend it, they were picking at things that Cathy was already insecure about; concerns she had voiced to Anne as they confessed, in fear that they would ruin the relationship.

It had always been something that had picked at Cathy. The thought that she wasn’t good enough for Anne was a fearful yet recurring one, often coming to her when she was alone and vulnerable. In an otherwise perfect relationship, this was the one thing that Cathy was struggling with.

For the most part, however, Anne was helping her deal with it well. If she spotted Cathy looking insecure or deep in unpleasant thought, she always pulled her out of it. Knowing full well of her worries since the rainy day on the bench, Anne was sure to repeatedly slip reminders to Cathy about her worth and how much she valued their bond.

This was actually beginning to work more and more with each time that Anne did it. Cathy’s worries, though still present, were becoming less frequent. At least, that was until now; until these boys came in and dug the insecurities back up from their graves. And this time, there was no Anne around to stop them from doing so.

“Leave me alone.” Cathy spoke through gritted teeth, trying to sound unbothered but she was sure her voice was wavering.

“Or what?” One of the boys asked, “You’ll-”

He didn’t get to finish because then the auditorium door opened. A flood of students poured from the doors, some chatting amongst themselves, others rushing to their next classes and a few simply walking at their own pace. An immediate rush of relief rushed through Cathy when Anne appeared at the tail of the pack, last to leave the auditorium as she shut the door behind her.

When she noticed Cathy sitting at the hall bench, her face lit up with joyous surprise. She sped walk up to her and began to speak, “Hey, babe, what are you doing here?” Then she turned towards the two guys, who were still lingering about, with a suspicious look on her face, “And what are they doing here?”

“We were just looking at the display.” One of them gestured to a display on the wall, depicting the last production the drama department had put on, “We’re going now.”

And then they both walked away, joining the crowd of drama students and leaving Cathy and Anne the only ones left on the bench.

“So, what are you doing here?” Anne asked again, sitting down next to Cathy on the bench, “Not that it’s a bad thing. I was looking forward to seeing you when I got in.”

Cathy instantly tried to pick herself up, looking over at Anne. “I thought I’d try to surprise you after class. I got you this.”

She handed over the brown paper bag she had been holding the whole time and watched Anne tentatively as she opened it up and peered inside. After what the boys said, half of her was expecting Anne to laugh at the gift, throw it away and break up with her on the spot. Someone else could give her so much better. This did not happen.

“You didn’t!” Anne looked up from the bag and to Cathy, a bright smile on her face, “All my favourites, too.”

“I know you liked it in there that one time we went to eat there.” Cathy returned the smile, which was surprisingly hard to do.

“You remember everything.” Anne responded, closing up the bag and placing it aside her on the bench, “I don’t know how you do it.”

“To be fair, the day we ran inside a bakery so we didn’t get soaking wet with rain is a little hard to forget.”

“You have a point.” Anne chuckled, pulling Cathy closer and planting a quick kiss on her lips, “But, thank you, love. You didn’t have to.”

“I wanted to see you happy.”

“Then here you are.” And Anne flashed Cathy the brightest beam she could muster.

Cathy playfully shook her head at Anne’s antics before they decided to make a move back up to their dorm. They got up from the bench and Anne carried the bag back, using her free hand to hold Cathy’s on the way.

This was no different to how they normally went around campus, and yet Cathy felt like things had very much changed. Following what the guys had just told her about, she couldn’t help but repeat their words in mind as they walked through the campus. She glanced around at the people surrounding them, students who were much too busy with their days to even give the couple a second glance, and yet she still wondered if they were silently judging her.

Was that girl on her phone texting her friend about how Anne was too good for her? Were the two friends laughing at a joke actually amused by how stupid her relationship was? These thoughts were irrational, Cathy knew, and yet they crept around her mind for the whole way to their dorm.

When they finally got through the door and Anne was kicking off her shoes, Cathy felt like she couldn’t keep her feelings buried anymore. Even if they were now alone and there were no more prying eyes to keep the wicked wheel of thoughts spinning, the record of unkind words still screeched around her mind. She needed time alone.

“I’m going to go to my room and finish off some work.” Cathy told Anne so as not to raise suspicion and buy herself a few hours of completely uninterrupted alone time.

“Okay.” Anne nodded, throwing herself down on the sofa to unwind from what had been a stressful day of examination prep. Cathy was relieved with the simple response and quickly darted into her bedroom, completely oblivious to the look of concern Anne gave her the whole way.

Once alone, Cathy began to ponder even more about whether what the boys said was right. She tried to think back on all the reassurances Anne had dropped for her, and yet the fresh memory of taunting stayed as the main imprint in her mind. Were they right? It wasn’t like Cathy was inclined to disagree with them at all.

Eventually, Cathy tried means of distraction to eradicate the thoughts from her mind. She slid her laptop out from under her bed and propped it up next to her on the mattress, opening up the Netflix site and clicking on a random show she had been meaning to watch for a while.

Whilst half of her mind was fixating on what was going on on-screen, the other half remained in the realm of insecurity. She couldn’t stop part of herself racking over what she had been told, imagining scenarios in which people she didn’t even know talked about her behind her back.

For a moment, she considered picking up her phone and texting Catalina about her concerns, but then she wondered if that was a good idea. Lina was the type to demand to know the boys’ names and dorm numbers to give them a piece of her mind. Definitely not a good idea.

So she simply sat alone, allowing only herself to ponder these thoughts. Four episodes of the show later (which she had barely consumed, given what she was thinking about), and Cathy decided it was time to stop hiding out in her room and to just get over it. It was a simple hurdle and she was making herself too worked up over it. Plus, even if she didn’t want to leave her room, it was getting late; she needed to cook.

When she emerged from her bedroom and returned to the front room, Anne was still there. Whether or not she had moved since getting home was unknown to Cathy, but she looked very invested in whatever was going on on her phone. Maybe she was texting Kat about how she should break up with Cathy.  _ No, stop thinking like that. _

“Hey.” Cathy announced her presence when she hadn’t heard her enter, causing her to look up from her screen.

“Hey! How did the work go? Are you finished?”

“Just about.” Cathy lied. Really she hadn’t done any work, but it wasn’t like she was going to confess that to Anne. “I’m gonna make dinner, I think. Do you want me to make you some or are you going to make it later?”

“Make me some too, please.” Anne asked and Cathy nodded, walking over to the kitchen area of their apartment.

By dinner, Cathy meant ramen noodles. One thing about university life that wasn’t so fun was the fact that almost every meal consisted of caféteria food, instant noodles or takeout. Still, this was just the norm for them both now, and Cathy was glad that Anne had accepted the offer. Even if she was just going to pour hot water in a cup and give it to Anne, it was the least Cathy could do. Some way to prove herself as a good girlfriend.  _ You really need to stop thinking like that. _

The kettle wasn’t even halfway boiled by the time that Cathy couldn’t stop thinking about it anymore. Even if she wanted to keep it in, the thoughts boiled underneath her, begging to escape. Her next words weren’t really voluntary, but they formed a question that she really wanted to ask.

“Annie, do you think I’m good enough for you?”

There was a silence as Anne put her phone down once more, this time locking it as the situation took more of a serious turn. Cathy was still facing the kettle, so she couldn’t see the expression on Anne’s face, but she immediately felt guilty and regretted the sudden outburst. It was something she should have kept to herself.

“What brought this on?”

“Nothing.”

“Cathy, is this something to do with those guys from earlier?”

A silence.

“Cathy.”

“Yes.”

Another silence. Cathy couldn’t see it, but Anne’s face scrunched with anger at the thought of them before quickly turning back to the expression of concern she had.

“Can you sit with me? Or at least look at me?” Anne requested.

Slowly Cathy turned around. They looked at each other for a few moments before she walked forward and sat next to Anne as asked. This elicited a quick ‘thank you’ from Anne before she started to speak again.

“What happened with those guys?” She asked.

Cathy sighed, looking up at Anne as if afraid to tell the story. She hated being vulnerable and she hated making Anne worry like this; worry because of her. It just made everything they said true. Still, Anne had asked, and there was no point trying to turn things around now. Her girlfriend wasn’t a fool. So, she explained.

“They just came up to me while I was waiting for you and started saying mean things.”

“Like what?”

“Basically implied I don’t deserve you. That our relationship is weird, and you’re dating me out of pity because you could have anyone at this campus and you’re dating me. They also said that people talk about us and laugh behind our backs. I don’t know, it sounds stupid now I say it out loud, but it’s just been getting to me.”

“Nothing is stupid if it’s getting to you, Cathy.” Anne quickly reassured. Her eyebrows were furrowed with Cathy’s recount, anger sizzling at the claims made about her but she refused to let it show. Right now, Cathy needed a supportive girlfriend, not an angry one.

“Still.” Cathy shrugged, “It just feels stupid. You’ve reassured me so many times before, you even did before we even started dating, that day in the rain at the track. But I let them get to me anyway.”

“I don’t care how many times I have to tell you. I’ll tell you again and again and again if it makes you happy. And I’m going to tell you right now, too.”

Cathy glanced at Anne with a shy expression, causing Anne to reach her hand across and grab Cathy’s. This was something she always did when the latter was feeling nervous, and it helped a lot.

“You’re perfect for me exactly as you are. I fell for you because you’re smart, you’re funny, you’re kind and you’re also really fucking pretty too.” Anne winked at Cathy as she said this, causing a small smile. Score! “Wherever you stand at this place doesn’t matter to me. You might be quiet, and you might keep yourself to yourself, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re you; my favourite person to be around, regardless of what anyone else thinks. I don’t give a shit if people are talking about us, but considering it’s those two that told you all this I really doubt that’s true. Even so, this whole planet could ask me out right now and I’d still pick you.”

“You mean it?” Cathy’s eyes glimmered, a mixture of tears and awe.

“I mean every word of it. I promise.”

“Thank you.” Cathy mumbled as she threw herself at Anne, quickly being encapsulated in a warm embrace.

“Of course.” Anne held Cathy in position like that for a short while, trying to use her actions to prove her point until Cathy began to pull away once more.

“I’m sorry I keep getting worried about it.” Cathy apologised, “It’s just new to me, and I guess with how we used to talk to each other before… I don’t know, I know it’s bad to think of the past so much but I can’t help it.”

“Hey, it’s okay.” Anne squeezed Cathy’s hand, “I know we got off to, like, the shittiest start ever, but look at us now. If I could take back all those things I said I would. I’m sure you would too. We were both just overreacting about each other and we both realise that now, right? Neither of us mean a word we said back then.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re right.” Cathy nodded, letting Anne’s logic trample the remaining insecurity. She finally felt calm again. Calm enough to tease her girl, at least. “I do hope you meant that line of texts calling me hot though.”

“You will never stop using that against me, will you?” Anne playfully rolled her eyes.

“Nope. Should’ve thought before you sent.” Cathy gave her a watery grin.

“I’ll get you back. I’ll look through all our messages to find something.”

“Good luck.” Cathy smirked at her. She was already a step ahead and knew there was no teasing material in their old messaging threads. It had all been harvested already, by herself.

Anne reached over to grab her phone for impact, so Cathy stood back up and returned to the kitchen counter. The kettle water had long since boiled and now dulled into a lukewarm, so she poured it away and boiled another batch.

It really had taken just a conversation with Anne to dispel the nerves, but Cathy tried not to beat herself up about that. She instead focused on Anne’s words and actions. Not just from the conversation that had occurred just a minute ago, but from every single interaction since they started dating.

Every hug, every kiss and every flirtatious comment. Anne loved her. If these didn’t show it all, the words had practically come from Anne’s mouth herself. She smiled to herself as she watched the water bubble. There really was nothing to worry about. She was good enough. Even if others, like those boys, thought she wasn’t, Anne had told her she was.

That was all that mattered for Cathy.


	14. Chapter Fourteen

“Ooh, I didn’t realise the tickets had holographic stars on until now.”

Anne fluttered the plastic slip in front of Cathy’s face, causing her to recoil with surprise before collecting herself.

“They are really well made, yeah.” Cathy nodded in agreement, looking down at the ticket in her own hands and observing all the small details.

The couple were standing in line at the lobby of the Harrison Planetarium, hand in hand as they waited to get to the front. After many great dates and the desire to cheer Cathy up a little after her encounter with the two boys, Anne had decided she was going to take Cathy out somewhere. This led to her booking a slot at the planetarium; it was affordable, in walking distance to the college and, most importantly, seemed just like something Cathy would enjoy.

Even if Anne wasn’t super interested in where they were, she was just excited to see Cathy’s reaction to everything. Her girlfriend had a little bit of a thirst for knowledge, and Anne found it quite amusing to watch her thoughtful expressions every time they watched a documentary together or whenever there was a non-fiction book in her hands. This was going to be just as enjoyable as it was for Cathy for Anne, only for majorly different reasons. She just hoped that the lights in the presentation dome would be bright enough for her to watch Cathy for most of the time.

When they reached the front of the line, it was a quick sign-in process as their tickets were scanned and the lady at the front desk gave them each relevant pamphlets on the topic of space, before directing them in the way of the entrance. Walking through the door and into the dome, it was no magnificent sight yet. The presentations were not set to start for another twenty or so minutes, so the main lights were still on and people were still finding their seats. Looking down at their tickets to find their seat numbers, Anne and Cathy were quick to join the search.

After wading through what were mostly families looking for their assigned seats, Anne and Cathy finally found their own. Once seated, Cathy glanced at Anne, who was already making herself comfortable by stretching her legs out as much as she could without bothering the person sitting in front of her.

“Annie?”

“Yeah?” Anne turned her attention from how much leg room she had, turning to face her girlfriend.

“Thanks for bringing me here.” Cathy smiled.

“You don’t need to thank me, babe.”

“I know, but I want to. I know that places like these aren’t really your thing.”

“Maybe not, but seeing you all happy and learny is my thing, so it’s a win-win.”

Cathy chuckled, “Time to add ‘learny’ to the list of words you’ve made up to describe me.”

“You can make a dictionary by this point.”

“I think I will, actually. Thanks for the suggestion.” Giving Anne a wide mischievous grin, Cathy pulled out her phone and opened the notes app, pretending to actually start working on Anne’s idea. This earned an eye roll from Anne before she shook it off and went on her own phone to pass the time until the presentation started.

After spending the remaining time before the beginning of the show scrolling through their phones whilst they waited for the other guests to get seated, the lights finally began to dim down, capturing everyone’s attention. Crowd chatter turned to hushed whispers turned to nothing and then the silence was replaced with a voice over a microphone that talked through the basic preshow necessities; phones had to be silenced or turned off, where the emergency exits were and the rest.

Finally, the show really began, and the screen above them lit up to illuminate a simulation of the night sky. Anne was slightly taken aback by how close and realistic it looked, barely resisting the urge to reach her hand up and try to touch it. She hadn’t been expecting to be intrigued this much, and yet the image of the stars hanging in the sky was more enticing than she had previously anticipated.

The presentation lasted roughly forty minutes before it was over. For the duration of this time, Anne was surprisingly quite attentive. Not so much so to the facts and information that was playing over the microphone, but rather to the plethora of colours and unseen imagery floating above her. It was like an otherworldly experience.

However, despite her impress, this wasn’t to say that she didn’t break her stare from the night sky simulation to glance over at Cathy like her original plan was. No, she did this plenty of times throughout the show, smiling to herself at the look on her girlfriend’s face. The way her eyebrows furrowed as she took in what was being said was adorable. Her hands occasionally twitched as if she wanted to grab a pen and note down something she found extra interesting. These were just the adorable perks of having an informatical girlfriend, Anne supposed.

Still, even though she was enjoying watching her girlfriend’s tiny quirks and was pleasantly surprised by what the show actually was, by the time the show was at the half-hour mark, Anne was growing fidgety. It was always a challenge for her to stay still for prolonged periods of time, after all. Before this became too big of a problem, Cathy intervened. Despite seemingly having all her attention on the presentation, she reached her hand across to Anne’s lap for her to take, allowing Anne to fiddle with her fingers and the threads of her sleeve for the duration of the show.

Luckily, this was satisfying enough - especially because there was only ten minutes left until the finale and the lights finally began flickering back on. Before they were let go, the guests were thanked for their attendance over the microphone, as well as informed of the directions of the exit and the accompanying space museum to continue their visit to the planetarium if they wished.

After half of the guests were up from their seats, Anne was quick to also stand up and stretch once more, squinting her eyes to adjust back from the darkness they had just been sitting in. Cathy also stood up, watching the other people file out either the exit door or into the museum entrance with a thoughtful expression.

“Museum time, I’m guessing.” Anne finally spoke up, watching Cathy with a small smile on her face.

“Please.” Cathy nodded, and the two linked arms as they slipped out from their row of seats and made their way down the stairs and towards the museum entrance.

Some might have said to call it a museum was a bit of an overstatement. It was rather a small series of one-way rooms, through which guests were allowed to take their time in exploring. Exhibits and information plaques were spaced out around each room, inviting guests to come and extend their research beyond what they had just been told at the show.

In other words, this section was like practically made for Cathy. She had all the time she needed and all the information was laid out neatly before her; the awe was radiant off of her. Anne simply followed her around as she explored, reading off of every placard and absorbing everything there was to know that she didn’t already.

“Did you know Venus was named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty?” Cathy asked Anne after having just admired the model of the planet.

“Venus has nothing on you.” Anne grinned, causing Cathy to roll her eyes albeit her small blush.

From that reaction, Anne was only inclined to make even more similar comments with every exhibit they looked at together. Of course, there wasn’t always an opportunity, but Anne jumped at the chance every time there was.

“Are you the sun? Because you’re the centre of my universe.”

“I think you might be a star, because I can’t stop orbiting around you.”

“Do you come from Mars? Because you look out of this world.”

“Are you Jupiter? Because I can’t escape your gravitational pull.”

All of these lines were greeted with the same reaction of eye-rolling and waving it off, but Anne didn’t get bored of it at all. Throughout the whole museum she tagged along to Cathy, dropping the suggestive pickup lines where she could. Even though they were poorly made up on the spot, it didn’t matter - they all had just the desired effect on Cathy.

“Did you know Uranus has twenty-seven moons?”

“Nice, but what if I took-”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence.” Cathy shook her head quickly, having a vivid idea of the next words that were going to come out of Anne’s mouth.

“Fine.” Anne fake pouted, looking to one of the other displays beside them for new inspiration. She was quick to find it and so asked another question. “Are you Saturn? Because I wanna put a ring on you.”

“Did you just propose to me?” Cathy asked, feigning an expression of shock which caused Anne to widen her eyes.

“I mean, no, but, if you wanted me to-”

“Relax, I’m just kidding.” Cathy laughed at the fact that Anne actually believed her question, “It was revenge for all the pickup lines since we got here.”

“That is in no way equivalent to some pickup lines!” Anne protested, only to be pulled closer into a loving embrace by Cathy which immediately shut her up.

Eventually, after many more pickup lines and remaining locked in each other’s hold as they walked, they reached the end of the museum and stepped out into a souvenir shop. It was reasonably small; shelves 

“We should both get something to remember today with.” Anne suggested as they looked around, which was quickly agreed by Cathy.

That’s how, after ten minutes of separation and individual browsing, they ended up reunited with different things in hand. Hugged to Cathy’s chest was a thick, brightly slipcased book that looked to be bigger than her head. Wrapped between Anne’s fingers was the chain of a silver necklace, which was attached to a charm of two twins; the Gemini symbol.

“I didn’t know you believe in star signs.” Cathy grinned teasingly when she looked to see what Anne had picked.

“It was the most interesting thing in here, and it’s my sign!” Anne defended herself, glancing at what Cathy picked up, “At least I didn’t choose the Bible.”

“This is an encyclopedia.” Cathy held it up for Anne to see the cover with a laugh.

“Same thing.”

“Not really.”

Laughing it off, they approached the checkout desk to pay, and then they encountered their next problem. Who was paying?

“I’m the one taking you on a date, I should pay.”

“You already paid for the tickets!”

“Maybe you should pay for each other.” The employee, who was a sweet-looking old woman, suggested as a means to be helpful.

“Great idea.” Anne quickly agreed, snatching the encyclopedia from Cathy’s hands and placing it onto the checkout. She was satisfied with this route because the encyclopedia costed much more than what the necklace did.

Once they had paid and their souvenirs were packed, Anne took the shopping bag and Cathy’s hand before they walked out of the museum and back outside. By this time, the clear blue sky there had been when they entered the museum had darkened into an inky black with nighttime.

“Are you the moon? Because even when it’s dark you still seem to shine.” Anne turned to Cathy with a proud look on her face as she spotted the actual moon hanging graciously over the city skyline.

“If you say one more pickup line, I’ll call a taxi and go home.” Cathy jokingly warned her girlfriend, who quickly motioned that she was zipping her lips with the threat.

“I’ll try my best, but sometimes they just slip out.”

“Then you’re on thin ice.” Cathy said before gazing up at the blanket sky with a look of mesmerisation on her face, “Look at all the stars.” 

“Babe, we’ve been looking at the stars for, like, the past two hours.” Anne teased with a grin.

“I know.” Cathy rolled her eyes before speaking thoughtfully, “I know a lot more about them now too.”

“Tell me something then. About the stars.”

Cathy hummed in thought, her eyes gazing at each shimmering fleck of white paint on the black sky canvas before finally turning to Anne with a dopey smile. “None of them are as beautiful as you.”

Now it was Cathy’s turn to admire the effects of a stupid pickup line said on a whim. Anne was grateful it was mostly dark out to hide the depth of her blush as she just shook her head in denial to what Cathy had said.

“I’d argue it’s the other way around.”

“Agree to disagree?”

“Probably the best, because we’d never agree otherwise.”

Both chuckled slightly to themselves as they walked down the streets in the direction of the campus to get back home. There was the occasional car that drove past them but, other than that, the night was silent and tranquil with only their voices piercing the air. They were almost home when they turned a street corner and Anne spotted a certain fast food restaurant which was practically daring her to go in with its glowing golden arches and the emptiness of the place.

“Can we go to McDonald’s?” Anne pointed to the establishment as Cathy couldn’t also see the bright logo, which was drawing more attention to itself considering it was now nighttime.

Cathy considered it for a moment before shrugging in response, “Yeah, I wanna get ice cream.”

“Me too. If the machine isn’t broken, anyway.”

Thus the couple made a detour from their walk home to cross the street and walk through the retail park that the restaurant was located.

“Imagine if we went through the drive-thru to get out food.” Anne mused as she looked up at the big arrow sign pointing toward the drive-thru’s road.

“We don’t have a car.” Cathy pointed out the obvious with a raised eyebrow.

“I meant if we just walked through it.”

“Babe, we would either get run over or arrested.”

“Not a good idea then.”

“Nope.”

“I still kinda wanna try it.”

“Definitely not.” Cathy deadpanned. With Anne, however, she could never be sure, so, to keep safe, Cathy tightened her hold on her girlfriend. One reason being so she could steer her well away from using the drive-thru to get her food, but she also just enjoyed the feeling of holding her. She was constantly looking for excuses to do so.

When they got into the restaurant, there was a bare queue before reaching the front and ordering what they wanted. Due to the lateness, it was almost empty in the establishment; most of the tables were vacant spare from a few people their own age sitting around and snacking on small meals. Noticing how unoccupied the building was, Anne turned to Cathy with a triumphant look.

“We wouldn’t have gotten run over, there’s no cars because it’s so empty in here.”

“Which means we would have been arrested.” Cathy reminded Anne with the shake of her head as she swiped her card to pay for the two ice creams they had ordered.

After that, it was extremely quick for their order to be finished. Not only did they order something that took seconds to make, but the restaurant was empty, meaning they didn’t have to wait for other orders to be processed before they got their own. Thanking the employees behind the counter, Anne and Cathy took their food and decided to walk back outside despite there being many spare seats for them to take.

Instead of walking back to the campus like earlier, though, they continued on with their detour. Simply letting their feet guide them and paying no conscious mind to where they were going, Anne and Cathy walked under the stars they had just been studying, as close to each other as they could get without making it impossible to actually walk. Even though it was a cold night and they were snacking on ice cream, it couldn’t compare to the warm contentedness they had in each other’s presence as they walked together.

Soon after they both finished their food, they found themselves in the local park. Just like the McDonald’s, this was also vacant; only this time it was truly empty, with no other people dotted around. If either of them had been alone, it would have felt eerie to be standing at the entrance of what was usually such a busy place, looking around and seeing it in such tranquility. However, they had each other, which just made the empty park feel like an inviting adventure.

They walked through the gate, dropping their empty pots of ice cream into the entrance bin as they did. It was like a patch of relaxing wonderland before them, set aside just for them. At night, the park’s lake looked so much more beautiful with the moon’s glow shining down on it, making it look like a pool of liquified silver. The plethora of picnic benches by the lake were all theirs for the taking with them all being empty. 

What was causing mutual excitement, however, was not the emptiness of the benches but rather of the playground. It was usually bombarded in the daytime with parents and their children, but now it was invitingly desolate. Neither of them had been to a playground in years - how could they, as adults, justify occupying the play equipment in an already crowded park? They couldn’t.

Which was why now was so special. The park was empty. There was no one but each other to justify their actions to, but they didn’t even need to do that because they both had the mutual urge to go in there. Even if they were adults, even if they were in their last year of university; the craving for a taste of their childhoods was a strong one. Hence, they didn’t even need to share a word as they approached the playground area of the park and began cycling through each piece of equipment.

They ended up sitting on the swings after a little while of goofing around on the slides and soaring to the horizons on the seesaw. It was the perfect end to a perfect day, as far as Cathy cared. Whilst she gently swayed on her seat and watched the moon’s reflection in the lake, Anne, who was facing in the opposite direction, took great exuberant swings through the air, laughing hysterically with the childish adrenaline.

However, as time went on, Anne’s energetic bounds through the air slowed down to a gentle swaying that matched Cathy’s own. Even though they were still facing opposite directions, meaning Anne wasn’t facing the water, she still spoke to the girl beside her.

“Imagine if we went skinny dipping in the lake.” It sounded like a challenge more than a statement.

“Anne, that’s the third time you’ve suggested something illegal in the span of twenty minutes.”

“Fiiine.”

Cathy laughed softly at her response before flickering her eyes away from the water to look at Anne.

“Can I just say how much I enjoyed today?” Cathy asked.

Anne stopped staring at the treeline to return Cathy’s gaze, “If you want, but let me say it too.”

“Alright then.” Cathy allowed with a tiny smile, “But, seriously, Anne, thank you for taking me out today.”

“It was my pleasure. Watching you get all nerdy is a self indulgence for me anyway.”

“Well, you getting soft in times like this is self indulgence for me, so it works both ways.”

“Shush.” Anne shook her head, a smile to match Cathy’s own tugging at her lips.

“No, I’d rather continue.” Cathy attempted a mischievous expression but it was hard to pull it off when she was so full of love, “Honestly, Annie, I enjoy every second I spend with you. Whether it’s a date like today or we’re just chilling around at our dorm.”

“Or, if we’re going really early, texting each other without any idea who it is.”

“That too.” Cathy smiled, looking back on those oblivious times; moments that had been so good because they had each other via Tumblr, yet simultaneously nothing compared to having each other in real life.

“You know, it’s kind of funny to me.”

“What is?”

“Like, before we got this close we used to be so convinced that we hated each other and would avoid each other and all that shit.” Anne explained, “Because now I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Neither. I don’t even think I can imagine what it’d be like if I didn’t meet you.”

“I don’t want to try to imagine it.”

“Then let’s just focus on the now. The fact that right now, and tomorrow, and the day after that, we have each other, which is the best gift we could possibly have.”

“It really is. And I really hope what you said about tomorrow and the next day is true, because I really do want us to last forever.”

“We will.” Cathy firmly stated, “We definitely will. We will because I love you, Anne. And I don’t let go of the people I love so easily.”

Despite having such heavy connotations and deep feeling behind them, the three words slipped out of Cathy’s mouth like they were lightweights. What was even more shocking, however, was the fact that Cathy felt no immediate regret after uttering them. No fear rushed through her veins and no anxiety bubbled at the pit of her stomach. She was simply speaking her truth, and she was speaking it to Anne; Cathy had learnt there was no reason to be afraid. Not in a safe space like this.

Upon hearing Cathy’s words, Anne dug her heels into the dirt track floor to stop her gently swaying and kicked a few steps backward, so they could be face to face instead of side by side. Her lips were slightly parted in a silent gasp at what Cathy had said, only causing Cathy to bite her smile at the adorable awed expression.

“Do you mean that?” Anne asked, searching Cathy’s face for genuinity.

“Of course I mean it. I could say it a hundred thousand times and I’d always mean it.”

With that sentence, Anne was drawn to twist her swing seat to the side in order to face Cathy properly. She then took the chains of Cathy’s own swing and twisted that around to face her too, before leaning in so that their faces were bare millimeters apart; the tips of their noses brushing against each other and the skin of their lips lightly touching.

“I love you too, Cathy Parr.” Anne whispered into Cathy’s lips even though there was no one else around to hear. And then she took her hands from where they were holding the chains of Cathy’s swing steady to wrap around Cathy’s shoulders, pressing their lips together in a gentle yet intimate kiss. “I fall more and more in love with you every single day.”

They maintained that position for a while, wordless in each other’s company and instead using their actions to convey their mutual affection; their shared love.

Love. It was a heavy word; one without solid definition and no reigns. That’s what made it so difficult to decide whether or not what they were feeling was encompassed by the daunting four letter word, or if they were just in a prolonged honeymoon phase. Now, though, it felt simple. 

That feeling of safety they got only with each other; the sensation of their souls sparking inside of them with each moment spent together. The warmth and content that encapsulated them from head to toe and the infinite dopamine that bloomed with every look and every word.

That was love. And they were ensnared in it. Impossibly tangled up in its web, but with no intentions of cutting themselves loose. No, they wanted to stay glued in that mesh forever. So they didn’t pull apart, not for a long time. Instead, they enjoyed the feeling of being wrapped up in each other with their truths floating like doves around them and the pure, unfiltered love cramming its way between their lips and their arms and in every nook and cranny it could possibly squeeze itself into between one another.

This was love.

Anne and Cathy might have been two random university girls in the middle of a serene spot of nature at the time, but they were both sure that what they had was the most beautiful thing that that park had to offer that evening.


	15. Chapter Fifteen

Even in the midst of paradise concerning their relationship, other areas of their life were getting increasingly more stressful for both Anne and Cathy. Well, other areas was a bit of an overstatement. There was one particular aspect of their lives that was bringing increasing amounts of stress with it; university and exams.

With the end of their final university year steaming towards them in a way that felt even faster than ever before, the workload from their classes only increased tenfold in preparation for the final exams. The amount of times that their teachers had recited the same information about the tests and the constant reapplication of exam pressure was only multiplying more and more. This took a harsh toll on their wellbeing as exams were becoming more and more pressed down on them with each day that passed. Every day they were told the same; it was imperative that they do well on these exams. If not, they had basically failed at life. There was a lot at stake, and the whole year group was feeling the burn of constant revision and working, all building up to these fateful hour slots where they finally put their revision to the test.

Surprisingly, despite their different academic outlooks, this exam pressure took a much higher toll on Anne than it did on Cathy. Being a drama student, her exams were already in full swing about a month ago - the drama department tended to start early given the different areas of examination; practical, theory and coursework. She was already swimming in prep and practice to start with, so when the rest of the campus’ subjects started edging into the exam period also, she only got more added onto her ridiculous workload. Especially because her minoring subject was English.

Still, even though she had every right to feel under pressure, Anne made it her best effort to cover up her stress. It was just something she unconsciously did; after building up such a carefree and apathetic attitude, Anne was eager to maintain it. If anyone got even the slightest idea that she was stressing about something, her persona was finished. At least, that’s how Anne reasoned with herself.

That’s why she took it upon herself to not show weakness for even a second during the examination period. For the months of revision it spanned across, and then in the final few weeks of taking the real test papers, she was determined to not show even a chip in her armour. She didn’t even want people to think she was taking these exams seriously, even though they were imperative for a successful future.

At the beginning, when things were only just starting to get stressful, Anne was able to achieve in keeping up a coarse wall. She didn’t miss a beat and was just like her usual self; happy, energetic, dare say even chaotic. However, as one hour of daily revision turned to two turned to three and exam pressure was starting to be applied at a constant rate, getting firmer and firmer, this regular facade was harder to upkeep. It was becoming an effort to stay normal - to not let a weak side of herself be on display.

The more it became harder to cover up her feelings, the more other people were starting to catch on that Anne just wasn’t acting like her usual self. Her bounciness and extravagance that previously came so naturally seemed forced, if it was even there at all. Confidence was something that used to radiate off of Anne like a contagion, but now her brow was always creased with some sort of nervousness, especially when she had a pen in hand and was focusing on her work. There was almost no more room for fun anymore, Anne opting to spend almost every window of her free time cramming information instead of giving herself a break. She couldn’t afford to give herself a break. These upcoming exams were important.

With all these alterations in behaviour and the general change in attitude, it was only natural for the people closest to Anne to catch on. Especially concerned amongst those who noticed were her cousin, Kat, and her girlfriend, Cathy. Watching somebody they both cared about spiral into even deeper levels of stress gave them both a shared concern; a mutual desire to reach out to Anne. If either of them could just manage to get rid of one of the tensions Anne was juggling, they were happy. Whether it was calming her down about the exams or reassuring her that she didn’t need to uphold a carefree attitude all the time, they were determined to relieve her of at least a bit of her stress.

So, when Cathy was alone in the lounge area of her shared dorm one day (Anne was, unsurprisingly, cramming revision in her room), she was unsurprised to get a text from Kat, finally addressing the situation they had both been noticing.

**_From: Kat_ **

**_hey_ **

**_can we talk about something_ **

**_To: Kat_ **

**_Of course, Kat_ **

**_What’s up?_ **

**_From: Kat_ **

**_it’s anne_ **

**_surely you’ve also noticed how stressed she seems_ **

**_it’s making me worried_ **

**_To: Kat_ **

**_Yeah, I have noticed. I was thinking of bringing this up too_ **

**_What do you think we should do?_ **

**_From: Kat_ **

**_idk_ **

**_i mean obviously talk to her but like how do we bring that up_ **

Cathy hummed to herself in thought before typing her next response.

**_To: Kat_ **

**_I don’t think there will ever be an ideal situation to bring it up_ **

**_Like, there’s never a good time to just go up to someone and be like “hey, what’s bothering you?”_ **

**_You know?_ **

**_From: Kat_ **

**_yeah you’re right_ **

**_so i guess when do we bring it up_ **

**_or who brings it up and stuff_ **

Again Cathy thought to herself for a moment before responding. She weighed her options and considered what she had just told Kat, thinking about how the more time they put it off, the more Anne was going to spiral. Finally, she decided on her reply.

**_To: Kat_ **

**_I can go and talk to her now_ **

**_Better sooner than later, right?_ **

**_From: Kat_ **

**_i mean yeah but are you sure?_ **

**_like i can come up and help so you’re not alone, i’m home right now anyways_ **

**_just bc it’s a sudden decision_ **

**_To: Kat_ **

**_Don’t worry, I can handle this :) I’ve been thinking about it for a little while, so I have a general idea of what to say_ **

**_From: Kat_ **

**_oookay_ **

**_but please keep me updated and text me if you change your mind!!_ **

**_To: Kat_ **

**_Of course_ **

**_I’ll text you as soon as possible_ **

**_From: Kat_ **

**_okay_ **

**_thanks btw cathy_ **

**_To: Kat_ **

**_No need to thank me, we’re both just looking out for someone we care about_ **

**_From: Kat_ **

**_hahahaha that rhymed_ **

Despite the seriousness of their conversation, Cathy couldn’t help but smile at the last message as she locked her phone. However, this moment of comic relief was shortlived as she quickly pulled herself back down to a more serious mindset. If she wanted to get through to Anne, she knew she needed to be both supportive and sincere - to listen and to offer solutions. Thus, Cathy left her phone in the lounge as she stood up and walked to Anne’s bedroom.

She lingered at the closed door for a minute or two, piecing together some idea of what she was going to say, trying to achieve some sort of structure. The last thing she wanted to do was to overwhelm Anne or make her feel uncomfortable. No, the goal was to simply offer out a branch of support and hope to God that she would latch onto it. How hard could it be?

When Cathy opened the door, she was greeted by the sight of Anne sitting at her desk, hunched over some books and papers. Her girlfriend didn’t even react to the sound of the open door though, not even stirring from what she was doing. Usually, this was a sign that someone was in a prime stage of concentration and it wasn’t a good time to interrupt them. For Anne, however, it was different.

If her worn attitude over the past few weeks wasn’t enough to show that Anne needed a break from this constant work, her appearance right now certainly did. Her posture was tense and uneven as she poured over each word. Her hair was pushed back behind her, revealing the deep furrow of her eyebrows and the expression of burden she wore. 

Even the environment around her worked to expose how she was feeling inside. Whilst her room was still messy as always, it felt even more so than usual right then. Papers were tacked onto walls, presumably with facts printed on that Anne needed to remember. Everything that had previously been sitting on her desk had been messily shoved off into a pathetic pile at the foot of her bed, all in favour to stack her desk’s surface with books and papers and stationary. Many of these papers were also scrunched and nearly ruined, depicting scenes of what Cathy could only assume was blind rage being taken out on the materials in front of her.

It looked like the space of a distressed workaholic. To be fair, in that moment, it was the space of a distressed workaholic. Which was why, regardless of how concentrated Anne was at the time, Cathy had to pull her out of it for a little break. Else risk this situation getting a lot worse.

“Hey, Annie.” Cathy cleared her throat.

In response, Anne practically jumped out of her skin. She recovered herself pretty quickly, pathetically attempting to loosen her posture before turning around to face Cathy with a grin that was more fake than it was mischievous.

“Hey, babe, what’s up?” Anne asked, putting her pen down. Cathy was quick to note of the way she began stretching and flexing her fingers, like she hadn’t moved them away from that tight writing position for a long time and was relishing the seconds of relief provided.

“I was just wondering if you wanted to go and watch a movie or something.”

“I’d love to, but I’m a little busy with this chapter. When I’m done I will. Maybe a few hours? Is that okay?”

Just the type of answer Cathy was expecting. It was becoming increasingly more common for Anne to dismiss opportunities for leisure in favour of spending the time working, so her response came as no shock.

“Are you sure?” Cathy asked, “I mean, you’ve been working really hard recently. You deserve a break.”

“I can’t take a break.” Anne shook her head, diverting her gaze pitifully back at the paper she was working with before Cathy interrupted.

“You can, especially after all this work.” Without invitation, though with no protesting from Anne, Cathy left the doorway and walked into the room, wading through the mess on the floor before sitting on the bed.

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I need to pass these exams, Cathy. If I don’t…” Anne’s voice faltered, and she still didn’t turn around from the paper she was looking at, “You’ve heard what the teachers keep telling us. These make or break our future.”

“Yeah, and you just need to pass. Sure, it’s great to get a really high score, but you’re doing so much already. I know you’re going to pass no matter what happens, and with flying colours too.”

“I need a perfect score. Like, 100%.”

“On everything?”

“Yeah.”

“Why? I mean, it’s great if you get it on everything, but that’s a really hard target to set yourself.”

“I just need it. My parents-” But before Anne finished her sentence, she quickly stopped. It was like she realised that she had said too much.

However, even though Anne stopped talking about it, Cathy had still heard. She had a better general idea of what was causing the stress now, which was much better than where she had been standing before. It wasn’t just exams; Anne’s parents were also somehow involved - she had to pursue that lead.

“Your parents? What about your parents?”

There was no response from Anne, and Cathy couldn’t read her expression because her back was turned. Holding in a sigh, Cathy spoke again.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but you should know that I’m always here for you to talk to.”

Again there was no response from Anne. Only for a while though. As Cathy was beginning to think she wouldn’t be able to pry the answer out, Anne finally broke her silence.

“If I don’t do well, my parents, they’ll-!” Again, she was cut off, but not voluntarily. No, instead her own tears forced her to stop speaking as she let out a guttural sob.

Just the sound was heartbreaking to Cathy. The rising panic until she finally snapped was something that Cathy hated to witness, yet here she was; watching Anne bow her head with shame at her ongoing outburst, even with her back still turned. Still, even if the sight was extremely disheartening, Cathy also knew that she had to act.

“Annie.” Cathy spoke lowly, her voice barely louder than a whisper in an effort not to startle Anne, “Can you come sit with me?”

With nothing left to lose and Cathy’s gentle tone being all the persuasion she needed, Anne arose from the desk chair and clambered to the bed. There, she practically crashed into Cathy’s arms, crying into her shoulder. They maintained this position for a while; tightly embracing Anne whilst Anne nestled into the hold.

When Anne had gathered herself enough to sit up by herself and her sobs had dissolved into occasional sniffs, she pulled herself up and looked to Cathy apologetically.

“I’m sorry for getting emotional.” Anne mumbled, refusing to meet Cathy’s gaze as she wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

“You don’t need to apologise for having feelings.” Cathy sighed, “I’m actually glad you let them out a bit. It’s not good to bottle things up.”

“I guess.”

“It’s the truth. But, anyway, do you want to talk about what you were saying before?”

“I don’t really have a choice now, do I?”

“Well, it’s still up to you. But remember what I said; I’m always here to listen when you need it.”

Anne finally gathered the confidence to meet Cathy’s eyes with that sentiment. She searched, looking for any sign of ingenuity but there was none. Looking back at here was simply an expression of sincerity. So Anne decided to finally speak.

“It’s been going on since secondary school. You know when you choose your options subjects?”

“Yeah.”

“I picked drama, dance and French. I mean, French was just an easy grade for me, but it’s also the only one they actually liked me picking. As soon as I told them I was doing two practical subjects, they got mad. Started to tell me I would never get a career in those fields, that I had just thrown two important qualifications away.”

“They didn’t have a right to police your choices.”

“But they did anyway. So when I got my results back and drama and dance were passes but not the highest passes, they kind of used it against me. They weren’t perfect scores, so why bother pursuing them when that industry really wants the best of the best? So that just made me really angry and did nothing to throw me off of wanting to become a performer, so when choosing college courses came, obviously I continued with performing arts.”

“Did they react the same?”

“Even worse, because college is more important than secondary. And again, I got almost a perfect score for the exam but not quite, so you can imagine again how they reacted. But still, I chose it again for university. They got even madder than both times before, especially because I had chosen to major in performing arts rather than English. You know, I thought they’d be happy that I was going for an academic subject at all.”

“And they keep taking all this anger out on you.”

“All the time. They just want me to be perfect, to follow in my older sister’s footsteps, and they don’t think that pursuing creatives like the ones I do achieve that. I want to prove to them that I can thrive in this industry and that I can get perfect scores, because maybe then they’ll actually respect me and respect what I want to do. So that I can do what makes me happy without them turning their nose to it all the time. Or.. I dunno, I just want them to stop treating me like an idiot. They call me stupid, act like I’m unintelligent, just because I pursue the arts more than the academics. And I know I can be a little… slow, at times, but I’m not dumb. I’m sick of everyone thinking it, especially my own family.”

“I’m so sorry you have to deal with that.” Cathy sighed sadly. She knew Anne had a little insecurity about her major because of the stigma around the people who took it, but she never realised it ran this deep. “Your parents sound terrible.”

“I dunno, it sounds stupid now I say it out loud.”

“It’s not stupid if it’s hurting you. Besides, they’ve been pressuring you for so long now, it’s only understandable that you’re feeling stressed, especially because it’s the final exams.”

“I guess.” Anne shrugged, “I just want to be good for you too.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, you’re always at the top of the grading boards every time there’s a paper returned. You’re so smart and intelligent, and you deserve someone who matches that.”

“Anne.” Cathy furrowed her eyebrows at the sudden voicing of insecurity, “For starters, you don’t give yourself enough credit. You’re one of the smartest people I know, and I’m not just saying that to make you feel better. It’s the truth. Besides, even if you weren’t, I’d love you all the same. I’m with you for who you are, not how much intellect you have. That’s not going to change.”

“I don’t deserve you.” A tiny smile curled onto Anne’s lips, a very relieving sight for Cathy. Again, she leant into Cathy’s side.

“Of course you do.” Cathy pulled her closer, playing with the ends of her hair.

It was nice to sit in this position, but Cathy had yet to talk to Anne deeply about the crushing expectations set by her parents.

“About your parents, though, I just want you to know that they have no right to act the way they do or say the things they say. No parent does, especially not about what makes their child happy. They’re just being shitty to you, and I know it’s hard to do, but you really shouldn’t listen. No matter what grade you get, and no matter what subject you take, you’re always going to be great at it because you’re so passionate. And you’re always going to have me and my support, no matter what you end up doing or how well it goes.”

“God, I really do love you, Cathy.” Anne sighed, only nestling her head further into the crook of Cathy’s neck.

“And I love you more. No protests.” Cathy smirked.

“Fine, but only because you made me happy right now.”

“You know what would make me happy?”

“What?”

“If you gave the studying a break for a bit and we spent some time together. It can be doing whatever you want. Just something that’s not so stressful.”

Anne gave it some thought.

“Can we order pizza and play a video game?”

“Of course.”

That’s how Anne and Cathy found themselves cuddled up to each other on the sofa, a blanket draped over them and a pizza box open on the coffee table. They only had one Switch console, Anne’s, so they took it in turns to play. Whilst one of them tried a level, the other busied herself with spectating whilst snacking on the takeout.

Finally, it was like Anne’s spark had been reignited.

-

Since Cathy had stepped in that evening, Anne had been approaching the exam season with a much calmer and more relaxed mindset. Whilst exams were always going to be a stressful time no matter the person, especially the final ones of university, Anne was making sure she didn’t slip back into that fearful state again. This was practically impossible anyway, what with Cathy’s eye on her in case she slipped up again.

Now equipped with a healthier outlook and an organised structure, Anne cruised through the remaining weeks of revision. As it turned out, monitored revision with appropriate breaks was a lot more practical than non-stop studying. She found herself soaking up a lot more information than she had been previously, which only continued to help dissolve her nerves regarding the exams.

When the time finally came for the real final examinations to commence, Anne wasn’t the only person in the university who was a little nervous. No, everyone in her year group was full of fearful anticipation as seating charts for exam halls were posted and coursework due dates came crashing in much too quickly for everyone’s liking on the calendar. Yet, even with all these nerves, there were actually no major mishaps for the exams in their whole year group. At least, not any that Anne had heard of.

Whilst she had gone through her English exams quite well, the final and worst exam was yet to come; performing arts. After everything she had spilt to Cathy - the eagerness to pursue the career she dreamed of and the thirst to prove her parents wrong - Anne needed to ace this one the most. Having handed in her coursework for the subject and being fairly confident in the quality of what she had written, the practical component of the exam, which she was about to walk into, was really the make it or break it element of her grade. Messing this up wasn’t an option.

So, when she kissed goodbye to Cathy outside the auditorium, glancing one last time at her script, she was terrified. Even if she did a great job at hiding it underneath her chilled and carefree exterior, it was easy for the people closest to her to notice. Cathy gave her a reassuring squeeze of the hand before she really had to go, whispering wishes of good luck in her ear and promising her that she would do amazingly. After all, she had been the one who Anne had recited those lines on the script paper to over and over again.

During the practical exam, Anne’s five other friends waited outside with Cathy, none of them sure what they were going to see when she emerged. Fear? Dread? Happiness? Relief? Luckily for them, it was something along the lines of the latter two options.

“How did it go?” Jane was the first to ask as Anne reappeared from the auditorium doors.

“I think it went well.” Anne told them. By the look of her face, it definitely went well. Happiness was just radiating off of her. Or maybe that was because…

“That was the last exam!” Kat cheered, earning a chorus of eager nods and ecstatic agreements.

It was done. That was not only Anne’s last exam, but the final exam of their whole friendship group. From the moment that Anne had re-emerged from those auditorium doors, all of them were finally untethered from the academic lifestyle of constant revision, hecticly working towards deadlines and sitting countless exams. Sure, they were still technically students at the university until the graduation ceremony in a few weeks time, but that didn’t matter; they had nothing else to do other than relax and enjoy the void period of freedom between the final exam and graduation.

To celebrate, they quickly decided on a whim to go and have a meal together at a restaurant in town they all enjoyed. Grouping up at a round table for six, they spent the evening smiling, laughing and having the time of their lives. It was a cause to celebrate; this chapter of their life, the hard work and the perseverance each of them had given it was over.

As Cathy leaned into Anne’s side at the table, she couldn’t stop thinking about that. Tuning out the conversation that was happening, she smiled to herself as she truly let it dawn on her that university was over. Next, she would be entering the workforce and finding herself a real home. It truly was the start of something new.

Yet, even with all the changes that were going to come with the impending graduation ceremony, one thing was going to stay the same in her life.

She would have Anne by her side the whole time.


	16. Chapter Sixteen

“Okay, okay, I’m finally ready!”

Anne Boleyn practically waltzed out of her bedroom, a proud smile on her face. For good reason too; today was graduation day. After arriving at the university three years ago as a freshman, she had been working non-stop until this point, and it was now paying off. In a few hours the final graduation ceremony would occur, one she would share with her friends, both ones she already had and ones she met along the way, who all underwent the same journey as her. It was going to be a day to remember.

Her girlfriend, Cathy, was ready long before she was. She looked up with Anne’s dramatic entrance, smiling a little at the sight of her in her cap and gown.

“You look adorable.” Cathy grinned, “All in your oversized gown and a hat that’s too big for you.”

It wasn’t like she could justifiably say these things though. Cathy was adorned in the same type of attire, which too was a few sizes too big for her. Most of the students were having the same problem, but none of them cared. The rental place that most of them had booked their outfits from was the most reasonably priced in the area; they could deal with a bit of a loose fit.

“You don’t look so bad yourself.” Anne responded, “But you’ll get creases on the gown if you leave your laptop on it like that. I thought you packed it already.”

“I did.” As she spoke, Cathy took the device off her lap and placed it onto the coffee table, “But I got it out again because I wanted to look at our place on RightMove one more time.”

“Awww.” Anne cooed in a teasing tone, “Don’t worry, we’ll get to see it in person in a couple of hours.”

“I can’t wait.” Cathy smiled, a content and dreamy look on her face as she thought about it, “But how about we get going now? Or we might be late.”

“Good idea.” Anne nodded, “Let me just…”

She reached up and adjusted Cathy’s cap a little bit, making it more straight. However, rather than pulling her hand away when she was done, she instead leaned in and pulled Cathy towards her for one quick peck on the lips.

“You could’ve just asked.”

“Nah, I was fixing your hat. It was all wonky.”

“So the kiss was just an added benefit?”

“Just because I wanted to.”

“What are you like?”

They both laughed before standing up and brushing themselves, making sure they were immaculately presentable. After they had smoothed out all the creases in their gowns and were satisfied with how they looked, the two finally walked hand in hand from their apartment and out of the dorm building to the car park. Here, groups of other students in their year were already gathered, also dressed up in the graduation gear. They were all waiting for the university provided minibuses to pick them up and take them to the graduation venue.

Having agreed to meet with Jane, Catalina, Kat and Anna outside, both Anne and Cathy scanned the crowds for any sign of any of their friends. Given the fact that they too were dressed in the exact same outfits as their peers, it didn’t take long at all for Anne to spot them in the herd. She pointed the group of four already united out to Cathy and together they waded through the other students to their friends.

“Glad you could make it.” Anna joked upon their arrival being the last.

“No, we were just going to skip our graduation.” Anne deadpanned sarcastically.

“Can you believe it though? Like… we’re graduating.” Catalina chimed, an awestruck look on her face. There were some hums of agreement from the others. Even though they were all standing there in that very moment, it was difficult to comprehend that they had all made it.

“Better believe it with all the hard work you’ve done to get here.” Jane smiled encouragingly at Catalina before turning to face the empty spaces in the car park. “Any idea when the minibuses are arriving?”

“Hopefully soon.” Kat commented, following Jane’s gaze wishfully.

“We should just take a steam train there. I feel like I’m going to fucking Hogwarts with this gown on.” Anne lifted her arms as she spoke for effect, the looseness of her sleeves showing all too well with how they hung off her.

Cathy chuckled, bunching some of the loose fabric in her fist and using it to pull Anne towards her. “Definitely not.” She kissed her cheek, “We’re graduating today, not going to another school.”

“I’d take on seven more years of education if it meant going to Hogwarts.” Anne shrugged, the dopey grin not leaving her face. Instead, probably due to Cathy’s embrace, it just seemed to grow.

Not long after that conversation, the transport that the graduands had been waiting on arrived. Flocks of students stood aside and gathered on the pavement as numerous vehicles pulled into the allocated space in the car park; a small collection of minibuses and two coaches. Within time, all the students who hadn’t already opted to catch private transport to the venue had got onto one of the allocated vehicles.

Luck seemed to be on their side because instead of being ushered into one of the coaches, the girls were instead allowed to climb into one of the minibuses. Not only was it less compact in here despite it being much smaller, but there was also only one other friend group with them. This provided a much more comfortable and relaxed experience as they drove off to their graduation, all buzzing with excitement from the moment the car started until the second they pulled up outside the venue.

From there, they were separated at the entrance into groups respective of their separate majors; Anne being huddled with the drama students whilst Cathy joined the crowd of English majors. It was a surprisingly quick process to sort each graduand into alphabetical order after that. With every member of the graduating class in order, the doors finally opened and they were ushered to their labelled seats.

Faculty and family members were already seated around the place, many of their faces lighting up with joy as the graduating class entered and found their own seats. Once she had found the chair marked with her name, Anne craned her neck around the room to look for Cathy. Despite there being so many people around, she seemed to find her almost instantly. A small smile crossed her face as she watched her girlfriend. Even though Cathy hadn’t seen her yet, it was just nice to watch her from afar.

Unfortunately, Anne didn’t get to bask in this feeling for long. Almost as soon as the last student found his seat, the headmaster of the university stepped to the microphone, drawing all attention to himself. From then there were drawling speeches that seemed to drag on forever as far as Anne was concerned, but finally the time came for them all to receive their diplomas.

This was another lengthy process of calling names and applause, but, unlike the speeches, there were highlights. Seeing her friends walk on stage and accept what they had worked so hard for put a smile on Anne’s face and added an extra spark of energy to her otherwise dull clap. Watching Kat especially made Anne’s heart swell with pride; it felt surreal to see her step up and take this achievement after having known each other since birth.

Then it was her own turn. At the call of her name, Anne sprung out of her seat and headed onto the stage. Even with all the confidence in the world, it did feel daunting to be in front of so many people at once, but there really was nothing to worry about. After shaking the hand of the presenter and taking the cylinder of paper, Anne flashed a smile of gratitude to the applauding audience before heading back down and returning to her seat. That wasn’t before she sent Cathy a joyous look though, and to catch her girlfriend’s pride filled eyes in that moment of pure euphoria was possibly the best thing Anne could have done.

When Cathy nervously climbed onto the stage at the call of her name, Anne did her best to return the favour. Her pride seized her actions as she clapped loudly, and it took all the will in the world to not yell out some words of encouragement. She didn’t take her eyes off of Cathy for the whole time, even watching her for a moment as she got comfortable back into her seat before finally traipsing her eyes back to the professors for even more monotone speeches.

Like that, it was over. There were parts that felt like they would never end, but in all the ceremony seemed to fly by before they were given one last congratulatory message, well wishes for the future and their final dismissal as students of the university. Excited talking began to fill the venue as the now graduates arose from their seats, many triumphantly holding their diplomas in the air as they each filed out. Anne followed the crowd, keeping her eyes peeled for any of her friends to reunite with them.

Cool air hit her in the face as she stepped through the doors, not having realised just how stuffy the room was getting until she was outside. It was probably the result of such a crowd of people, and the gown she was wearing surely didn’t help. Looking around, Anne attempted to find any of her friends amongst the crowds. It wasn’t easy, what with all the students sticking around to say goodbye to their professors, take pictures with one another and talk to their family all clotting the area, but eventually the flock began to thin out.

Some people were getting back onto the provided transport whilst others had called Ubers or, if they had driven themselves to the venue, simply got into their own cars and left. It was largely split as to what each individual was doing and where everyone was planning to go next. A large majority of the graduating body were heading to the university organised graduation party. Others had decided to celebrate in their own smaller groups, and some were simply planning to go back to their dorms and get a headstart on packing to leave. Everyone was different.

Anne didn’t end up finding any of the others, instead her attention being pulled by some of her classmates in both her English and drama classes. Losing track of the time, she spent a while talking to those friends, taking farewell selfies and promising to stay in touch until she eventually heard her name from behind her. She turned around, and there were the other five she had previously been looking for, all having found each other and then her first.

“You have to go now?” One of the girls from her drama class asked, to which Anne nodded in response.

“Yeah, I’m catching a ride with them.”

“Alright then, I guess this is goodbye.”

“Nah, just see you later. Promise we’ll stay in touch.” Anne gave a watery smile to her friend, who returned it with the same attitude. Even though she was closest to the five waiting for her, she really was going to miss all the classroom friends and memories she had made during her time at the institution.

“‘Course we will.”

They embraced in one last hug before waving each other off and Anne jogged to her friends, wiping her eyes with her gown sleeve.

“Getting emotional?” Catalina smirked teasingly at her and Anne playfully rolled her eyes.

“I was just saying goodbye to my other friends.”

“It is an emotional day.” Jane contributed in Anne’s defence, “It feels weird that this is basically the end. Like, we only have a week left to pack up and move out before our accommodation expires.”

The others hummed in agreement, all having their own minor flashbacks to memorable days at the university - be it good ones or bad ones. As she reflected, Cathy gently intertwined hers and Anne’s fingers. A recurring pattern in her favourite memories of her time at the university was that they all seemed to have Anne in them. Sure, there were also some pretty bad ones from the early days that were correlated to Anne - they hadn’t exactly had the most promising of beginnings. But, after this long, it was safe to say that Anne was the best thing that came out of her university experience.

Entering the dorm building on her first day and collecting her key from the receptionist, Cathy had always assumed that to build herself the brightest future, she would need to leave the academy with her diploma, great qualifications and an education she had used to the fullest. Now, however, whilst she still knew that these were all very important factors, none of them were pivotal. What was the most crucial thing was the people she met - one in particular. As long as she had Anne by her side, she was sure that she could handle what the future threw at her. In fact, with the promise that Anne was going to be there, she was excited at whatever the future had in store.

It was as if Anne could sense the excitement that had sparked inside Cathy during the few minutes she had tuned out of the conversation, because she turned around to address her one to one.

“Do you think we should get going? To, well, y’know.” Her words were coated in sweet excitement, her eyes glowing with the exhilarating flames of new adventure. Cathy nodded, a smile curling onto her lips and a content warmth with the knowledge of what was to come enveloping her.

With their mutual decision, they looked back to the rest of the group.

“We’re gonna go now.” Anne announced.

“Okay.” Catalina was the first to speak, a smile of happiness for her two friends on her lips, “I’ll talk to you guys later, okay?”

There were a few minutes of farewell hugs even though they all knew that they couldn’t possibly fall out of touch with each other. Some tears were shed, embraces were shared, well wishes were given and, after promising Jane that they would text as soon as they were home, they were off.

Opting to walk hand in hand back to the dorm rather than hiring a taxi to take them back, they were soon back to the campus. In the carpark, students who had already made it home were packing boxes into the boots of their cars, the sight causing Cathy and Anne to look at each other with eager anticipation. They had chosen the same option as these students; to move out and start anew as soon as possible.

Entering the dorm building, they weaved through the small line of students who were already returning their dorm keys and went up the stairs until they reached their floor and then their door. It was exactly as they had left it when they had walked out a couple of hours earlier; almost completely empty, spare from the university provided furniture, the two boxes and suitcases stacked against the walls, containing their own personal belongings.

“First of all, I’m getting dressed out of this gown before I die of heat exhaustion.” Anne dramatically said as soon as she stepped foot into the living room.

“Good idea.” Cathy commented, deciding to do the same.

Once they had both shed off the extra layers, Cathy took both gowns and both caps, placing them into the only box that remained unsealed. She then took the final item that was left out, the laptop she had put onto the coffee table earlier, and carefully slid that into a device fold of her suitcase. As they both looked around, they each realised it was exactly as they had found it when they first arrived at the university, only this time it wasn’t waiting for them to move in. Now it was the opposite.

“This brings back memories.” Anne commented, her voice seeming to echo with the emptiness of the room, “Maybe you should go to your room and have your suitcase half unpacked so we can recreate our first meeting.”

“Well you’d have to wait outside for two hours before you come running in, yelling apologies about being late.” Cathy responded with a joking tone.

“I really would, but I literally can’t wait for two more hours.”

“Neither can I.”

“Should we go now then?”

“I think so. What else are we waiting for?”

“Nothing. It’s just memories holding us back.”

“Then let’s go.”

After making sure they had packed absolutely everything, Cathy and Anne proceeded to make three trips back and forth from their dorm room to their car park; two for each box and the third for their suitcases. When they were finished lifting and loading the final suitcase into the back of Cathy’s car and she had shut the boot door, they looked at each other but neither of them said a word.

There was nothing left to do now but get into the car and drive away from the campus, a move that would officially mark the end of their time as students. Both of them were eager to do this, each excited to start a new chapter of their lives together, but, at the same time, both of them were thinking of all the sentimental moments shared at the location. Standing in the moment was proving to be a lot harder than excitedly anticipating it for weeks.

“What’re you thinking about?” Anne asked Cathy, as if she knew that Cathy was also reflecting on everything that had led them to this point.

“The day by the racetrack. I can just about see the bench from here.” Cathy pointed over Anne’s shoulder, causing her to turn around. She was right; from where they were standing, over the roofs of cars and at the edge of the athletics field, one could just make out the bench that they had been standing over on one fateful rainy day.

“That was a great day.” Anne sighed happily with the memories.

“It was.” Cathy agreed before taking her eyes away from the bench and looking at Anne, “What are you thinking about?”

“The night at the fairground.”

She didn’t need to elaborate on the details; Cathy was transported back to the evening spent under the starry blanket sky, getting tipsy on adrenaline but, by the end of the night, becoming love drunk on Anne’s kiss. It was the first of many kisses they shared, which made it all the more memorable.

“We’ve made so many memories.” Cathy commented.

“We’ll only make more.”

“You’re right.” Cathy nodded, “Hey, Annie?”

“Mhm?”

“Can we stop for coffee on the way there?”

“Uh, sure.” Anne seemed a little taken aback by the sudden change of subject but didn’t voice it. “Where?”

“I know a place. Let’s go.”

With that, they climbed into the car; Cathy in the driver’s seat and Anne in the passenger’s. Even though it was a typical rule that the driver chose the music, Cathy didn’t mind as she let Anne fiddle with the buttons on the car radio, flicking through each channel whilst she hummed and kept her eyes on the road.

It was only two minutes into their drive that Cathy pulled up to the coffee shop she was talking about. Anne, who hadn’t even been paying attention to what was happening outside the window in favour of surfing through each radio station, looked up in surprise. That surprise dissolved like a wave of dopamine as she took in the shop they had just parked next to.

“The Ozone Coffee Makers.” Anne read the sign aloud, glancing over to Cathy with an expression that read gratitude.

“We never did get coffee from here.” Cathy said, unbuckling her seatbelt, “I figured we should.”

Both of them got out of the car, walking hand in hand to the entrance. Anne thought back to the first time she had entered this building, alone and excitedly anticipating her first ever meeting with  _ goldstar _ . That had then gone in a direction she completely didn’t expect, but, by the end of it all, she was here again. This time, walking in with the same company she had been so excited to meet originally.

Due to the place not being too busy, there was no long wait for them to get their orders processed and their to-go cups to be handed to them.

“You weren’t lying when you said it was really good here.” Anne commented after immediately taking a sip from the straw sitting in her drink.

“You didn’t even get a real coffee.” Cathy teased as she unlocked their car once more.

“A frappe is a real coffee!” Anne defensively shot back, only making Cathy laugh at her reaction.

“If it helps you sleep at night.”

Both getting back into the car, Cathy placed her beverage into the cup holder and started the engine once more. Immediately, as if she was on cue, Anne used her free hand to start flicking through the radio channels once more, until she finally settled on a station she liked a few minutes later.

They drove for about forty minutes. At some points, Anne turned the radio up when a song they both liked came on, each of them dreadfully karaoking the lyrics. The windows were wide open, wind rushing through their hair and excitement increasing with each mile closer they got to their destination.

Forty minutes feels like nothing. It’s simply the length of an average TV show episode or a detention at school. However, for them, it was the time of limbo. A plane between two chapters of their life; the previous and the next. For this short amount of time, they only had each other, the road ahead of them and the music in their ears. It was a jolt of freedom, a way to cool down and a dimension of jubilation before the new wave of challenges that life would eventually throw their way.

It was a slot of time they both enjoyed until they finally reached where they were headed. Cathy slowed the car to a stop inside a new car park, one neither of them had been in before, and they both stepped out. Above them towered a block of flats, much like the dorm building they had called home during their university days, only this time it was theirs. A real home.

“I don’t know how to describe it, but it feels so surreal moving in with you, even though we’ve literally been living together this whole time already.” Anne said as they reached their new front door - Flat 2-6.

“I have the same feeling.” Cathy responded, “Even if at its core it’s nothing too new, I still feel so excited.”

“Me too.” Anne smiled, “But I still find it funny.”

“Find what funny?”

“In the past, I was literally counting down the days ‘til graduation so I could finally move out and live by myself. Well, it didn’t have to be by myself, just some place that you didn’t live in. Bet you did the same.”

“Guilty.” Cathy chuckled. The memories of feuding felt so laughable now, even if at the time they had taken the argument so seriously. That in itself was another reason it was so comical to look back on. “If you went back and told me that I would move in with you after we graduated, I would have laughed in your face.”

“This is past me’s worst nightmare.” Anne agreed with a laugh.

“Oh well, past us don’t know what’s coming for them.”

“Just let them fight until they realise they’re idiots.”

They both laughed softly for a few moments, before looking back at the front door. It was just the two of them so far, no suitcases or boxes, standing inside the communal hallway of their new block of flats. Their new shared home. A home they had picked out together, on purpose, because they loved each other. A home that they had decided to share because, even if one might claim they were polar opposites, they enjoyed having each other around, and couldn’t picture life without the other’s company. It was their home, maybe built from brick and cement, but brought to life by the love they shared.

“Shall we finally go inside?” Anne asked. Cathy nodded.

“Do you want to open the door?” She pulled out the key that the landlord had given them a few days ago, letting it hang off her forefinger and suspend in the air.

“Let’s do it together.” Anne suggested, so they both took hold of the key. It was a hard fit, and they ended up each awkwardly pinching it just so they could both have a grip on the small piece of metal. Sending a look at each other, and agreeing with only the understanding of each other’s expressions rather than a nod of the head or the uttering of a suggestion, they turned back to lock and slid the key into place.

Then they turned it around in its lock and the door opened. Not only the door to their new flat, but also to their future. A gateway to thousands of more memories; to so many more mornings of waking up beside one another and finally cooking each other something that wasn’t ramen on a student debt and cuddling in front of a TV that they would buy themselves, not one that was provided by the university.

The future was in front of them; a prospect that, to many, was terrifying. However, with the warming presence of one another and the knowledge that, as long as they had each other, they would never be alone, there was only one thing left to do.

They stepped over the threshold, walked through the door and into the next chapter. Together.


	17. Epilogue

“I’m the best cook. Like, ever.”

Standing over the stove, Anne loosely held the handle of a cooking pan as it simmered away. With no real method to her actions, she messily shook at the handle, poorly mimicking the actions of the professional chefs she had seen on cooking shows. In doing so, she didn’t succeed in much other than almost flipping the food out of the pan, as well as a little cooking oil splashing over the rim. Cathy, who was watching from the dining table, gave her wife an eye roll.

“Yes, because the best chefs throw the food everywhere  _ except  _ the plates.”

Cathy didn’t spend too much time watching the home cooking show, instead turning her attention back to Mae; her second daughter, who was sitting in a highchair pulled up at the side of the table and growing more and more erratic with each second that passed without being fed. Quickly moving away from the prospect of having to calm down a crying baby, Cathy quickly lifted up the spoon and resumed what she was doing, much to the infant’s delight.

“Why don’t you cook dinner then?”

“You’re the one who insisted on cooking. Besides, would you rather flip a pan or battle with a hungry demon–I mean your daughter.”

“...Good point.” Anne decided, chuckling to herself with the last part. “But I’m still one of the best chefs.”

“If you say so.” Cathy responded, feeding Mae the last remnants of the pot before she set it down, along with the spoon, and took her daughter in her arms.

“You love my cooking, don’t lie.”

“It’s definitely improved, I still remember when your finest dish was ramen with paprika stirred into it.”

“How did we live off of that?”

“I don’t know.”

Both women smiled at the small reminisciation of their university years. Despite being long gone, the memories were still fresh in their minds as if they had happened just yesterday. Thinking back on them, it was astonishing to consider how far they had come, as individuals and as a couple, since the first day they stepped through the gate as new students.

Of course, there were the simple things, like they were discussing in the kitchen that day; going from busy and broke students with no time or money to make anything more interesting than instant noodles for dinner to a pair of comfortably living women with a small collection of recipes between them. Then, there were the more significant things; literally getting married, for example.

It was safe to say that nobody would have predicted that. After feeling nothing but burning hatred for each other for most of their time cooped up as roommates, it was already a shock when they took a sudden U-turn into friendship. So, to take that a step further into a relationship, which later reignited to marriage? That was just the last thing anyone ever anticipated.

Even so, nobody was against it. Sure, nobody foresaw it, but, when romance did blossom between Anne and Cathy, nobody could deny how beautiful it was. That was probably why they moved in together so quickly after university, albeit already having experience living together. Then, only two years after that, Anne was down on one knee and Cathy was nodding her head yes, a thousand times yes.

Taking a break from their established jobs to travel around Europe for a week on honeymoon was enough adventure to satisfy them for a little while, until, a couple more years down the line, the discussion of having children came up. Thus commenced the months of preparation as they both agreed on having at least one child; deciding how they would do this, finding a donor, and then readying one of the spare rooms in their house fit for the new addition to their family.

Being new mothers was a bigger challenge than Anne or Cathy ever anticipated, but they had each other; and that bond was enough to win at motherhood. Once Elizabeth’s first words (a high pitched squeal of ‘Otto!’, after the stuffed otter that Cathy had begun putting the girl to bed with) had been uttered, first steps messily taken and first day at school having come, the two were left feeling a bittersweet mixture of emotions watching their baby grow up. One on hand, their hearts swelled with love and pride. On the other, they missed the days spent rocking her to sleep and taking her out in a pram around town.

It didn’t take long after they realised that it was a mutual feeling for them to go through the same process of preparation, though this time equipped with real experience and a more accurate idea of what to expect. Having their second baby girl, Mae, was when Anne and Cathy finally felt satisfied. Even though they had plenty of stress and sleepless nights now dealing with another newborn on top of their first child, who definitely seemed to be taking on the traits of the more chaotic of her two mothers, they were happy. There was simply nothing more to it; they had their desired work, their girls (and four babysitters who were always eager to take them off their hands) and each other.

Those thoughts spiralled around in Cathy’s mind as she carried Mae, whose drowsy eyes were now drooping closed with tiredness, to her crib. It took barely a few minutes to rock the baby asleep, and then only a few seconds more to power on the baby monitor sitting atop the windowsill. As if on cue, Anne yelled upstairs to signify that she was plating up as soon as Cathy closed the baby’s door behind her.

Quickly making her way back to the kitchen before she was yelled for again, Cathy smiled at the sight of Liz frolicking around at Anne’s feet, trying to get a better glimpse up at the plates on the kitchen counter but not doing very well given her height.

“C’mere.” Cathy swooped in from behind her eldest, encapsulating her into a bear hug and then lifting her off the ground so she could actually get a look. This earned an explosion of giggles from Liz as she joyously extended her arms in a flying motion, eventually being guided to her seat at the dinner table as Anne carried the plates over and set them down.

“Bon appétit.” Anne said with pride as she took her own seat, speaking as if she had just presented the winning dish on a cooking show. With the way she was recklessly flipping the pan earlier, it was likely that was exactly what she thought.

“Looks great.” Cathy complimented, which was then proven by Liz immediately picking up her utensils and tucking in.

“It’s like I said. I’m the best chef ever.” Anne grinned, quickly taking the utensils from her daughter and cutting the food into smaller pieces.

“Cocky.”

“No, honest.”

“Oh, shush.”

“No.”

Rolling her eyes, Cathy didn’t respond. Instead, she waited for Anne to finish cutting Liz’s food and turn back to her. When she did, she leant forward and captured her wife in a kiss. It was one that only lasted a few seconds but, at the same time, was just as magical as all the ones that came before it.

“That got you to shush.”

“Because your lips were on my mouth!”

“Whatever.”

Cathy chuckled and now Anne was the one playfully rolling her eyes, but the mini conflict didn’t last long as Elizabeth launched into a spew about everything that she had learnt at school that day. Sure, it was the same spew they had both heard twice today already, but they still listened as if it was the first time again.

And so, after batting heads for longer than they would have liked to admit, riding through the mess of university and soaring through years of adulthood, Anne and Cathy (or  _ goldstar  _ and  _ greensleeves _ , though those blogs were long abandoned) were finally happy, and not just as two separate individuals; as a solid force. A duo who had seen both the worst and best in each other, a pair who had felt both extremes of love and hate for each other.

Nothing could have prepared them for this outcome, but that also meant nothing could possibly throw them off anymore. They were one with each other now, and that was all that mattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow! thank you so much for reading this far, it means a lot to me. i’ve wrote a little bit of a longer thank you on my tumblr, here:
> 
> https://boleynhowards.tumblr.com/post/629908187657764864/bye-bye-reality-pushes-us-towards-and-away


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